Gravity Falls on Scooby Doo
by Battleangel911
Summary: One summer after the events of Weirdmageddon, the townsfolk continue to carry out the "Never Mind All That Act." So far, its' been a success. Those coming from out of town don't know a thing. Then, Mystery Incorporated came to Gravity Falls in search for the best unsolved mysteries. If there's one thing that Scooby and the gang know how to do, it's learn well kept secrets.
1. Chapter 1: The Mystery Hack

Gravity Falls on Scooby Doo

Disclaimer: This story is purely written for enjoyment. No profit will be made from it.

Gravity Falls is a product of Disney

Scooby Doo is a product of Hanna Barbara

Warning: This story contains spoilers from Gravity Falls season 2 finale.

Chapter 1: The Mystery Hack

The bright sun flared above as a lone van decorated in late 1960's flair moved steadily down the country road. Fred Jones kept a steady gaze ahead. To his right in the front seat were Daphne, a pretty girl with fiery long red hair and Velma, an astute individual with short brown hair wearing her trademark orange sweater. In the back, a boy and his dog lay together on a foam mattress. Suddenly, the left rear tire hit a pothole. The back of the van jerked. Both riders in the back were startled awake.

"Like, what was that?" the teenage boy cried out in panic.

"Just a small hole in the pavement, Shaggy."

He relaxed his body. "Oh." He laughed nervously. The dog jumped up with his paws on the back of the seat. "Can we stop for some rood?" he begged with his tongue out.

"Sure Scoob, we're almost to the town."

At that moment, the two girls awoke. The red head turned to Fred.

"Are we finally here? You said this town has the best unsolved mysteries."

"It's a rumor, Daphne," Velma, the girl next to her answered. She adjusted her thick glasses. "They say this town has the greatest unsolved mysteries with strange creatures and magical items scattered throughout the area. But any logical person knows that it's all fantasy. I'm just coming along to find all the hoaxes."

"Well that just takes all the fun out of everything," Fred responded sourly.

"F-fun?" Shaggy stuttered. "If these mysteries are like the ones we've found before, I'd rather just tour the gift shops and restaurants."

"Well, there's one gift shop we're going to visit," Fred responded. "It's called 'The Mystery Shack.'"

The van continued until the crew saw the giant water tower that read, 'Gravity Falls.'

"We're here!" Fred announced. Fred drove the van into town until they saw the mystery shack or rather the Mystery...hack as the beat up letters on the sign read. Fred stopped in front of the dilapidated building. All eyes stared at the gift shop.

"We've come all this way to this dump?" Velma questioned. Fred didn't respond. He adjusted his orange ascot neatly over his white shirt before getting out of the van. The rest of the group followed him into the shack.

Many knickknacks sat on the shelves, some on pedestals as if to look more important than they really were. Their attention then went to a young red head behind the desk reading a magazine wearing a white and blue baseball cap with a pine tree on the front, green vest and brown boots. Fred tapped on the counter top, but she didn't budge an inch. Next, he tried clearing his throat. When she didn't respond to that, Daphne pushed him out of the way.

"Hey there!" she spoke loudly. The girl looked over the top of the magazine.

She slowly lowered it so they could see her whole face.

"Yeah, uh, welcome to the Mystery Shack," she said with the lowest amount of enthusiasm she could muster.

"Hi, do you give tours?" Fred asked.

"Did someone say tours?" A young man wearing a dark suit and a fez stepped into the room. "Hey there Dudes! I'm Mr. Mystery, well, the new Mr. Mystery. Here is the statue of the old Mr. Mystery," he took out a duster and cleaned the statue of Stan Pines in all his glory.

"Soos, you're always cleaning that thing, will you give it rest?" Wendy said from behind the counter.

"Shhh!" he put a finger to his lips. "I do not know this Soos you speak of. I'm—" he paused for dramatic effect. "Mr. Mystery!"

Wendy groaned. Soos' eyes went to his clients. "So, you Dudes want a tour?"

"Like, yeah man!" Shaggy answered.

"Sweet!" Soos responded. "Because if you don't buy anything or take the tour, I'm supposed to kick you out. Sorry, but it's company policy."

The four teens and Scooby raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Uh, sure," Fred spoke slowly.

"Alright, be prepared to be befuddled and bewil, bewils—wow that is a hard word to say."

"Bewildered?" Velma asked.

"Right. Okay Dudes, if you're ready to get your tickets, Wendy will take care of you." Soos walked over and stood by the vending machine.

After his clients had their tickets, took each one and tour it in half.

"Time for the tour! Oh boy, I'm really excited!" He took the kids and their dog through the shack to show them all the marvelous wonders. The first stop was at a picture of a horse...riding a horse. Everyone's eyes gazed at the picture, their heads cocked in confusion.

"It's a fake," Velma said. "Someone photocopied two horses and put them together."

"This was made by the original owner. As was, well, pretty much everything here."

"So, the original owner was a bit of a scam artist," Velma said.

Suddenly, tears welled up in Soos' eyes. "Listen to me, I don't care if you are a paying customer, but you do not talk about Stan Pines, the most wonderful man ever, like that!"

"Velma, can you keep your skeptical nature under control?" Fred whispered to her. Velma didn't answer.

"Please continue," Fred told Soos.

Soos' sour face turned pleasant again. "Okay Dudes! Follow me to the next attraction."

The next stop was at a statue of a two-headed wolf. "Gaze at one of the most magnificent wonders," Soos purred.

"Fake," Velma protested.

"Like, how do you know, Velma?" Shaggy asked. She turned to him with an all-knowing glance.

"You don't even have to look that closely to see the glue he used to put the two stuffed heads together." She began walking back towards the entrance. "I'm done." Soos raced to get in front of her. "Hold on! I got one more thing," he pointed outside. He opened the door leading back into the gift shop. Wendy hadn't budged from the position they left her in. "It's out this way," Soos said as he opened the door. "Please, after you," he told his guests.

Everyone followed him outside to a strange flat rock that looked like a face.

"Zoinks!" Shaggy cried.

Everyone studied the rock, especially Velma. She bent down, squinting her eyes, studying it from every angle.

"Anyone could have carved a face into this," she said finally.

"Geez! You just kill the fun out of everything, don't you?" Fred scrutinized.

"Like, it's kind of creepy," Shaggy noted.

Soos flashed a big smile. "If you touch it, your soul will get ripped right out of you, true story Dudes."

Shaggy swallowed hard. Velma reached out her hand and touched the jagged piece of rock. "Nope. Nothing."

"Wow! You are lucky. Anyways, I'll end this tour with the—" He pulled out a large sack from his jacket. "—Sack of Mystery. Just watch as you put your money inside and it disappears." His customers just stared at him. Soos sighed. "Boy, this is hard. How did Mr. Pines do it all those years." He put the sack away, defeated. "Well, that's all I got."

"Oh, well, it—uh, certainly was interesting," Daphne said.

"Oh really?" Soos perked up. "I thought I totally messed up. Okay, I'll led you back to the gift shop." He said as he walked back to the shack.

"Oh, we're good. We're gonna get something to eat," Fred told him.

"Okay Dudes." He walked back into the shack.

"Come on gang," Fred said to everyone. "We should look for a place to stay for the night. Suddenly, Soos turned around.

"You're looking for a place to stay, huh? Well look no further! This isn't just your one stop gift shop, it's your one night sleep at an inn...uh spot." He ended with a big sales grin.

"Uh, thanks, but no thanks," said Fred. "Come on gang." The corners of Soos' mouth turned down as he watched the kids get into their van and drive away.

It was around four in the afternoon when the gang entered Greasey's Dinner. The townsfolk sat at their tables chowing down on good ol' country food. The teenagers and Scooby breathed in the smells of deep fried goodness, which was part fried chicken and part gravy. The gang found a free booth and sat down. It didn't take long for the waitress to come over. Their eyes froze on her when she walked over, as she was quite a sight. The plump woman wore heavy eye shadow and one of her eyes looked impaired.

"Hi there, name's Lazy Susan, what can I get ya?"

"What? No menus?" Velma asked.

She blinked the one eye a few times. "Menu? No one has ever asked for a menu before. Are you from out of town?" They all nodded. "Oh, well, our special today is bean soup, fried chicken wings and fried taters." Shaggy and Scooby were drooling.

"Well, take it... and like everything else too!" Shaggy exclaimed.

Susan squinted her one eye at them. "Wow! You must be hungry! How about the rest of you?"

"Uh, do you just have a normal salad?" Daphne asked.

"How about pizza?" Fred asked.

"Pitza? Sure. You want friend chicken on it?"

Daphne shuddered. "I like vegie pizza."

"We usually do half meat and half veggie," Velma said.

"Okay, no problem." She started to walk away.

"Hey, hold on," Fred stopped her. "Aren't you going to ask what we want to drink?"

She turned away. "Oh, I just assumed you wanted some coffee. That's what everyone here gets. That or soda pop."

"Soda pop is fine," Shaggy said.

"How about some water?" Daphne asked.

"Water? Are you sure? No one in this town drinks the water."

"Fine. Just give us the soda or whatever," Fred told her. She took her leave.

"I don't think we're going to stay here long gang," Fred said.

"Well, we have to stay somewhere tonight," Velma said. "Let's ask the waitress about hotels around here."

Lazy Susan came back with their food, placing the pizza between Velma, Daphne and Fred and bean soup, fried chicken, taters two more pizzas, a ham and cabbage in front of Scooby and Shaggy.

"Alright!" Shaggy cheered while raising his arms with a fork and knife in each hand. The two started to dig in.

"Geez! Has it been days since you two ate?" Lazy Susan asked.

"No, it's only been an hour since they ate," Fred told her. Her one good eye stared in amazement at the skinny boy and his dog wolf down everything. She slowly began to back away from the table.

"Oh, hold on," Daphne said. "Where would we find the closest five star hotel in this town?"

"Or just a normal two star one?" Fred asked.

"Hotel? Here? The only place for overnight stay is the Inn down the road, but it's not open now. They had to close down while fumigating the place for bedbugs and vermin."

"Are you kidding me?" Velma asked.

"So, where can we stay?" Daphne wondered.

Shaggy actually stopped chewing for a moment. "Hey, that Mr. Mystery guy offered us a place to stay."

"No way! I'm not going back there," Velma said firmly.

"Well, I could drive back out of town to find a place."

"We didn't see anything for miles before we got here," Daphne reminded him.

"Wait, you said, Mr. Mystery?" Lazy Susan asked. "You're talking about Stanford Pines? Is he back in town?"

"Who?" Fred asked.

"That's the name of the original owner of the Mystery Shack."

"We met a guy who looked like he was in his twenties," Velma said.

"Oh, that's the new owner, Soos. Shoot, I was hoping Stan and his brother were back."

"Where are they now?" Fred asked.

"Somewhere in the Artic. They sail around on their boat. Been gone since last summer. I hope I see Stan again." She finished dreamily.

As Scooby wolfed down his food, his eye caught something on the table next to his plate.

"Huh, rwhat's rhis?" he wondered. He looked down at a drawing of a triangle with an eye in the middle.

"What is it, Scoob?" Shaggy asked.

"Rhis is a rweird rpicture," he said. Shaggy looked over at it. Suddenly, Lazy Susan put a damp cloth on the drawing and rubbed vigorously.

"Sorry about that. I'll take care of it," she said. She looked earnestly at the kids with her one eye. "You should take Soos up on his offer. He may even throw in a continental breakfast."

"Breakfast?" Shaggy said between mouthfuls. "Let's go back!"

"I don't know—" Fred began.

"The sun will be going down soon, Fred. We need a place to stay," Daphne said.

"Well, let's finish eating first. Then we'll decide our next step.


	2. Chapter 2: Night at the Shack

_Author's Note: I'm not sure exactly how the interior of the Mystery Shack is supposed to look. I looked up some images and kind of went off of that. I'm also not sure if the shack has two or three floors. Let me know how close I am or if I need to change something._

 _Thank you._

Chapter 2: Night at the Shack

When the Mystery Inc. gang entered the shack, there were a few people cruising around the gift shop. Wendy was actually working, ringing up customers at the register. Her mouth curved up into a smirk, the most polite smile she could muster at the moment. Scooby looked over the items on the countertop, snow globes, key chains and a jar of eyeballs.

"Rikes!" he yelled and jumped back.

"What's wrong Scoob?" Shaggy asked.

"Ryes!" he said pointing at the jar.

Shaggy looked at the jar. "Zoinks! A-are t-those real eyes?"

"Come on Shaggy," Velma said in her usual skeptical tone. "We already went over this. All of this stuff is fake."

At that moment, Soos walked into the gift shop from outside with a small group of people who just took the tour.

"And now, if you'll direct your attention to the Mystery Sack. Just put your money in and watch it disappear." The people laughed and a few put in a couple of dollars. They went on to look around the shop.

"Huh, I guess this gimmick is a hit and miss," he said to himself. He suddenly noticed the Mystery Inc. gang. "Hey Dudes! You came back! Lookin' for some knickknacks?" he asked.

"I was looking at these key chains," Shaggy said, holding one in his hand. "But something doesn't seem right." He looked at the faded, cheap paint that read, 'The Mistory Shak.' Fred leaned close to Shaggy.

"Don't waste your money, Shag," he whispered. "This place is such a tourist trap."

"Like, are you Dudes still lookin' for a place to stay?" Soos asked.

Fred sighed. "Yeah, unfortunately the one Inn in this town isn't running."

"Oh, I see. Well, let me show you the rooms we have here." He walked towards the door leading into the house. Suddenly, he stopped at the vending machine. He looked over the 'Out of Order' sign on the glass door. "I wonder if it's safe to take this off," he muttered to himself.

"Hey, like, you have snacks here!" Shaggy asked.

Daphne rolled her eyes. "Seriously Shaggy? We just ate."

"Does it really surprise you anymore, Daph?" Fred asked.

Soos ripped off the sign with one quick jerk. "Yeah Dude." He turned and gave Shaggy a handful of quarters. "On the house, you know, since you're staying here and all."

"Like thanks man," Shaggy said as he put the quarters into the machine.

"Um, I'm not sure if we're staying or not," Fred said to Soos.

"How about we see these rooms first," Velma suggested.

"Yep! Right away!"Soos answered.

Soos took the gang into the living room, through the foyer and into the short hallway into another room. Two twin beds sat by the opposite wall, with a nightstand between them.

"Oh, this isn't bad," Velma said.

"Yeah, it's alright," Daphne agreed.

"Okay, then you two can stay here," Soos said.

Soos led the guys and Scooby up the stairs. "We got a couple of rooms up here, but one of them is mine and the other one is my Grandma's," Soos said.

"Then, like, where are we going to sleep?" Shaggy asked.

Soos stopped in mid-step. "Good questions, Dude." He put his hand on his chin, "Hmmm— I know!" Soos took them to the end of the hall where he pulled down a ladder. Fred, Shaggy and Scooby exchanged questionable glances.

"This way, follow me," Soos said as he climbed up to the third floor.

The third floor was the attic. Soos hit the switch, but the light didn't work. He grabbed a stepladder and a light bulb and swopped the bad bulb for the good one.

"There we go. You two can be up here with your dog. You'll get a great view through the window there." The trio looked around. Notepads lay next to one bed and colorful pictures lay on the floor by the other bed. Along the same wall was a food dish with the name _Waddles_ on it.

"This room was being used by my boss' grandniece and nephew last summer. Come to think of it, Summer Vacation is vastly approaching. I wonder when they're coming back."

Shaggy and Scooby went over to check out the closet. It was almost empty except for a few brightly colored sweaters, a green one with an ax on it, a yellow one with a pink tiger and the last one had a llama on it."

"Oh, Mabel left those behind?" He hadn't been up there since the kids left. He looked at the one with the tiger on it. "Oh, I remember now, I wore this sweater last summer."

"Really? I didn't think it would be your thing, man," Shaggy said.

"Usually no, but Mabel went through the trouble to make everyone sweaters so we would be warm during the uh—incident."

"What incident?" Shaggy asked.

"Oh, I mean—it's just an expression—nothing happened last year—nothing at all—" Soos shifted his eyes around trying to avoid any further discussion. Scooby gazed out the triangular shaped window. The sun set on the hilltops as the sky filled with red and violet hues. Shaggy joined Scooby by the window.

"See Scoob, this will be a peaceful visit. There's nothing to worry about in a town like this. No ghosts or monsters."

"You guys run into scary stuff a lot?" Soos asked.

"Boy, do we!" Shaggy responded. "Like that's all we ever do."

"Actually, we solve mysteries and the ghosts and or monsters turn out to be someone in a mask trying to scare people away," Fred explained.

"Whoa, that's really wacked. Why would anyone do that?" Soos asked.

"There are two basic types of criminals we've found, those who want to find some sort of treasure or someone who wants the land so they can mine for oil," Fred continued.

Soos stared wide-eyed at the three. "Wow! Have you guys ever fought a god like being from another dimension?"

"No, not really," Fred responded.

"Oh, then you haven't really fought an ultimate foe yet because last year— Oh, I'm doing it again. I'd better leave before I say some more stuff I'm not supposed to." Soos hurried down the ladder.

"Uh, does something seem off about Soos?" Shaggy wondered.

"Yes, definitely. But, we have a place to stay at least for tonight," Fred answered.

"I like, thought we were staying in Gravity Falls for a few days or something," Shaggy said.

"We'll see how it goes," Fred responded. "I guess for now, let's unpack our stuff then we can see how the girls are doing."

Downstairs, everyone regrouped. The shop was closed and a rush of calmness settled on the shack.

"So, what now?" Daphne wondered.

"Like, maybe we can get some dinner," Shaggy suggested.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Fred responded.

Suddenly, the scent of peppers, steak and spices filled the air. Both Shaggy and Scooby put their noses into the air and sniffed. Without a word, the two ran for the kitchen. They stuck their heads inside to see Soos cooking over the stove. Their mouths dropped open with their tongues falling on the floor.

"Like, what are you making, man?" Shaggy asked. Soos turned around.

"Oh, hey, I'm making fajitas," he said. "It'll be ready in a moment, Dudes."

The other three walked into the kitchen. "Oh, that does smell good," Daphne remarked. Shaggy and Scooby grabbed a seat at the table, each holding a knife and fork. "Like, we're ready!"

"Reah! Ready!" Scooby said with his tongue out.

Soos' grandma, Abuelita walked into the kitchen. "It's nice to have guests," she said. Then she saw Scooby at the table. "No! No! Doggie eats on the floor!"

"Huh?" Scooby raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"Like, Scooby doesn't do the whole dog thing. He eats with us," Shaggy explained.

"I think he's a special, enchanted talking dog, " Soos told his grandma.

"On the floor!" she insisted. "I don't want dog fur on the table." The ninety-year-old woman took a wooden spoon and smack Scooby on the top of the nose. "Go to floor!" she ordered.

"Ow!" Scooby yelled and grabbed his nose.

"Sorry, my grandma's pretty stuck in her ways," Soos said.

"Scooby, maybe you should listen for now," Fred suggested.

"But—" Scooby tried to understand why he had to eat on the floor when he was aloud to eat like everyone else at the diner.

"Like, how about if I eat on the floor with you, Scoob?" Shaggy asked.

Scooby thought for a moment. "Rokay," she responded.

After dinner, Soos and his grandma were in the living room. Soos sat on the couch with his grandma, leaving the yellow chair unoccupied. Shaggy and Scooby peeked their head inside.

"Hey, watching some TV?" he asked.

"Shhh! We're watching Ducktective. This is an intense part," Soos answered. Shaggy and Scooby looked at the white duck wearing a Sherlock Homes hat, talking to a man dressed in a constable uniform. They listened as the man asked questions and the duck just gave out a bunch of "quacks."

"This looks like one of those shows where you need to watch from the first episode to understand what's going on," Shaggy said. He approached the yellow chair and began to sit.

"Don't sit there!" Soos yelled suddenly. Shaggy stopped in mid-sit and turned with wide-eyes to Soos. "Sorry, that's Mr. Pines' chair. I promised him I would take care of it until he got back."

"Oh," Shaggy said. He sat next to Soos on the couch with Scooby on the floor in front of him.

After the show was over, Shaggy turned to Soos, "So, like this duck has a twin brother and they switched places, and no one knew for like a year? It's like the kind of thing that doesn't happen in real life,"

"Oh trust me, it happens more than you think," Soos answered.

Shaggy stretched his arms. "Like, I wonder what the gang is doing. I'm pretty tired."

"Okay. We'll see you in the morning," Soos said.

Shaggy and Scooby walked out of the living room. The door to the girl's room was closed.

"Guess they went to bed. Fred's probably upstairs." Shaggy headed towards the staircase.

"Rwait! Ri'm rungry," Scooby said. "Row about rome snacks?"

"Oh right. Like, from the vending machine," Shaggy said.

Shaggy put a hand on the door into the shack and turned the knob. The door opened. To the right was the vending machine.

"Oh boy!" he practically yelled.

Shaggy put in some quarters and hit a few buttons. The machine sent down a bag of chips. "Like, I wonder if I hit more buttons, if I'll get more snacks?" Scooby raised an eyebrow as if to say that it wouldn't work. "You don't believe I can get multiple snacks at once?"

"Uh-uh," Scooby shook his head.

"Okay, I will take on your challenge."

Shaggy put in a few more quarters and pushed a bunch of buttons. The lit buttons formed the letter C, then suddenly...the whole front of the machine opened revealing a descending staircase.

"Uh, okay. I wasn't expecting that," Shaggy said. "Should we check it out?"

Scooby ran behind the counter. He hunched down, quivering and whimpering.

"Come on Scoob, what's the worst things that could be down there?" Shaggy tried to coaxed his best friend.

"Ronsters and rhosts and spriders! Ryuck!"

"Yikes, you might be right. Maybe we should get the rest of the gang first."

Suddenly, footsteps came from the house towards the shop. Shaggy peeked around the corner to see Soos walking their way.

"Uh-oh! Come on Scooby!" He grabbed the hound and raced through the passageway. He shut the vending machine door just as Soos walked into the room.

"Hello?" he called. His eyes scanned the room. "Hm, I guess I'm just hearing voices. Good thing I came back here though. If I forgot to lock this door, Mr. Pines would kill me—or worse." Soos closed the door to the shop with a click on the other side to lock it.

"I think he's gone, Scoob," Shaggy said as he tried to push open the door. "Like, it won't budge!"

"Roh-no!" Scooby yelped as he pushed and pounded on the door.

"Like I hate to say it Scoob, but there's only one way to go," he said as he stared down the dark stairwell.


	3. Chapter 3: Secrets Underground

Chapter 3: Secrets Underground

Shaggy and Scooby crept further down the stairs until they came to an elevator.

"Like, I wonder where this goes?" Shaggy said and gulped. "Hopefully up!"

They walked inside and looked at the numbers. "Let's go to second floor." Shaggy hit the number two button. However, the elevator went down.

"Raggy! It's rowing rown!" Scooby shouted. He jumped into Shaggy's arms. The two shivered until the elevator stopped. The doors slid open. The boy and his dog walked through a doorway into what appeared to be a lab with big computers, desks with loads of notes.

"Okay Scoob, I take back what I said about nothing being creepy in this town. We just found creepy!"

"I rwonder rif ranyone ris rown rhere," Scooby said as he stayed behind Shaggy.

"I don't think so Scoob, but, this doesn't look the type of place that would belong to someone like Soos or his grandma." Shaggy looked down at a bunch of notes on the desk. Many weird creatures were drawn on the pages with handwritten words next to them.

"Look at these weird pictures. Like I hope I don't see anything like this," he said looking at a strange blob creature with the name _Cycloptopus_ written next to it. "'Don't let this thing ever taste human flesh,'" he read. "Zoinks! Like I don't want to read anymore!"

Scooby looked at the big computer monitor. A strange helmet sat next to it with a hose attached to the computer.

"Rut's rhis?" He placed the helmet on his head. The computer turned on. Scooby watched as he saw himself appear on screen. "Rhat's me!" He laughed. He watched himself as a variety of food popped up in front of his image. "Roy boy! Rood!" The image of Scooby chowed down on burritos, pizza and other food while the real life version of Scooby chomped down on air.

Meanwhile Shaggy looked through the various notes on creatures such as centaurs, Minotaurs, gnomes, fairies and unicorns. "'Unicorns are the most frustrating creatures in the universe,'" Shaggy read. "'They seek out the one who is pure of heart, but it's just a cruel joke as they don't really have the power to look into a human's heart, just point to the nearest rainbow and play rave music—' Huh?" He squint his eyes in confusion. "'Luckily I got ahold of some unicorn hair to make the protective shield around the shack.'" Shaggy scratched his head. "Protective shield around the shack? Why would there be a point to having that?" He looked over at Scooby hooked up to the machine. He rushed over and tore off the helmet. Scooby was in mid-chew. He slowly realized that the food he thought he was eating did not exist. His eyes rolled up to look at Shaggy.

"Rhere rid rhe rood go?" he asked.

"Food? What are you talking about?" Scooby looked up at the machine, but the screen faded to black. "Awww!" he exclaimed.

"Scoob, you gotta be careful. Who knows what that machine is or what it'll do to your brain." Shaggy walked to the back wall where there was a chalkboard. The side he stared at was blank. Then he noticed that the board could be flipped to the other side.

"I'm probably going to regret this, but I guess I'm curious." He put a hand on top of the wood frame. He turned his head to scooby. "Like, you can stop me any time, Scoob," he said. Scooby made a circle motion with his paw to say he wanted shaggy to flip the board.

Shaggy gulped, "Like thanks a lot pal," he said and flipped the board around.

It took Shaggy a moment to understand what he was looking at. There was a picture of the world, split in half on the left, a bunch of chaotic images of people running in panic and most importantly, a triangular shaped being with one eye wearing a top hat that seemed to be in control of it all. At the top of the picture, big bold letters spelled the word **Weirdmageddon**. Shaggy turned, narrowing his eyes at Scooby, "See, that's why I shouldn't listen to you." Scooby studied the drawing on the chalkboard at every angle.

"Rhat roes rhis mean?"

Before Shaggy could respond, a strange, almost otherworldly whisper echoed through the room. The words were jumbled up, speaking the same words over and over.

"Like, who's whispering?" Shaggy wondered. They listened for a moment. Shaggy took out a tape recorder and hit the record button.

"Rhat are rou roing?" Scooby asked.

"Remember what I said during our last mystery. The next time we found something creepy, I was going to record it as proof to show to the rest of the gang." I think maybe a video camera would have been better." Shaggy held up the tape recorder. The whispering continued. Now it was becoming louder and louder until the voice sounded high and shrill like it came from beyond the world of the living.

"Ret's ret out of rhere!" Scooby shouted. Now, the voice sounded as if it came from all around them.

"Yeah, like, we're done here!" Shaggy said. The two ran back to the elevator. Shaggy hit the number one button.

The elevator arrived back on the first floor. The two raced up the stairs and towards the back of the vending machine. Shaggy pushed hard on the door, His hand hit the latch that opened it up and the two fell out onto the floor.

Getting up, they saw they were back in the gift shop. Shaggy closed the machine back up.

"That's enough spooky stuff for now."

Total silence engulfed the two as Shaggy and Scooby looked around the dark shop. All the weird paraphernalia looked really cryptic now. The two rushed over to the door. Shaggy put a hand on the doorknob and turned it only to find the door locked.

"Oh no!" he cried. He pulled hard on the door. It wasn't budging. "S-someone locked us in!" Shaggy pounded on the door. "Hey! Anyone there? Someone let us in!" Scooby began to whimper.

"Like don't tell me we're stuck in the creepy shop," shaggy whined. "Well, I guess I'd rather be in here than that creepy basement."

Scooby looked around the shop. It didn't take him long until he found a box of chips and candy bars. He unwrapped each treat and at it one by one. Shaggy noticed his pal chowing down.

"Hey, more snacks!" Shaggy said as he joined his friend. As they emptied the box, they found something they couldn't eat. Shaggy pulled out strange contraption almost like a gun, but with a hook at the end.

"Wow! Is this one of those whatcallits—a grappling hook."

"Rappling rook?" Scooby asked.

"Yeah, you know, you shoot out the hook and it grabs onto a ledge and you use the trigger to pull yourself up." He paused as if in thought. "Hey, maybe we can use this to get in through a window." He walked over to the exit door and unlocked it and walked outside. Scooby followed.

However, the moment the two were outside in the quiet night, surrounded by trees, they instantly regretted it.

"Oh boy! Maybe we should rethink this. Like it's creepier out here than the basement."

"Ruh-uh!" Scooby nodded his head. Shaggy moved around the shack and looked up at the attic window where he saw a light. "Hey, Fred's still up. He can let us back inside." Shaggy pointed the grappling hook up and pulled the trigger, sending the hook sailing up to the roof. It caught on the edge.

"Perfect, now it will hoist us up to the window." Scooby jumped into Shaggy's arms as he pulled the trigger. They went right up to the window. Dangling there, Shaggy tried to tap on the window. The wind blew harshly, causing the two to sway.

"Whoa!" Shaggy wailed. "Like Fred! Fred! Are you in there?" They swayed back and forth, each time they passed the window, Scooby knocked on it. Suddenly, Fred pushed out the tiny widow pane.

"Shaggy? Scooby? What are you two doing out there?"

"Like panicking! Help us inside, will ya?" Fred held out his hand for Scooby to jump inside, and then he pulled Shaggy inside.

"What happened to you two?"

"Like, where do I start?" Shaggy began.


	4. Chapter 4: Unwelcome Tourists

Chapter 4: Unwelcomed Tourists

Fred stared at Shaggy in the silence after he told his adventure with Scooby in the basement.

"So, Soos is hiding a secret lab?" Fred asked.

"I guess so," Shaggy answered.

"Wait a minute, that waitress at the diner told us the name of the original owner of this shack."

"Yeah, like, it was Mr.—uh Pies?" Shaggy tried.

"Mr. Pines," Fred corrected. "We should learn more about him."

"Well Soos talks about him a lot. He really admires him. He won't let anyone sit in his chair." Shaggy said remembering Soos' reaction earlier.

"Okay. Why don't you talk with Soos more, Shaggy," Fred suggested.

"Just me?" he asked.

"Well yeah, I mean, you two have a lot in common, you like to cook and eat and watch mindless TV."

Shaggy put a finger to his chin in thought. "Oh, I guess we do. So, you don't want to take a look in the basement?" Shaggy asked.

"Do you know the combination to the vending machine?"

"No. Like I said, I just kept pressing buttons."

"Well, maybe we can trick Soos into giving it to us."

"Like how?"

Fred rolled his eyes. "I don't think Soos is the brightest guy. Just start talking about food or something and then bring up the vending machine."

"Well, it's kind of late—" Shaggy began.

"I know. We'll wait until tomorrow."

Fred and Shaggy settled on the two twin beds with Scooby on the floor between them. Despite what Shaggy and Scooby just experienced, they still had no problem falling asleep.

Morning came and the inhabitants of the shack began to stir. Fred, Shaggy and Scooby met Velma and Daphne down in their room. They stood in the small bedroom as Shaggy retold his adventure the previous night.

"I'm sorry, but I have to see this place before I believe anything you say Shaggy," Velma said.

"I knew you wouldn't believe me Velma, but this time, we have proof!" Shaggy spoke confidently as he held up his tape recorder. He hit the play button. Everyone listened to the audio; Velma took the tape recorder and held it to her ear.

"I can't make out what is being said. Did you see anyone down there with you?" she asked.

"No, that's why it was so creepy," Shaggy answered.

"We can figure it out later. Right now, we need to talk to Soos," Fred said.

The gang found Soos in the gift shop, racing around and arranging items neatly on the shelves and dusting everywhere. Every time he passed the statue of Stan, he polished it.

"Is everything clean enough?" He looked over Stan's statue. "Is it shiny enough?" He polished the face again.

"Soos! Seriously! It's fine! It's hurting my eyes to look at that thing!" Wendy said from behind the counter.

"They're going to be here any minute!" Soos went on.

"Who's going to be here?" Daphne asked.

Soos turned to the gang. "Oh, hey Dudes! I-uh forgot you were still here. It's a good thing though, you are going to meet the original Mr. Mystery!"

"Really?" Fred asked as he raised his eyebrows.

"You said, 'they?'" Velma questioned.

Suddenly, door leading outside swung open. All eyes went to two men in their late sixties. Their hair may have been grey and with deep lines on faces from age, but anyone looking at these two knew they were strong enough to take on any challenge.

"Hello! We're back!" One of them yelled in a gruff voice as he threw his duffle bag in the corner. The Mystery Inc. gang recognized he matched the statue perfectly. He was Stan Pines, the original owner. Next to him was a man who was almost his identical twin except thinner and less white in his hair.

"Mr. Pines!" Soos yelled as he hugged him. Then he turned to the other guy, "And—Mr. Pines," he hugged the other one.

"Hey Stan and Ford," Wendy waved.

"What are you doing back here?" Stan asked Wendy. "I thought you were done with this place," Stan said quizzically.

"Come on, where else am I going to get a job. You and Soos are the only ones in this town who will hire me."

"That's true," he admitted. It was then that the two brothers noticed the members of Mystery Inc.

"Hey, we got some early shoppers here!" Stan said loudly.

"Actually, they're renting some rooms for a few days," Soos said.

Stan raised a skeptical eyebrow. "What do you mean, renting some rooms?"

"Well, I offered them a place to stay since the local Inn is doing some renovations.

"You mean, the whole building?" Ford asked. "That's crazy! Why would a business make it so they wouldn't have any customers?"

"We thought that was strange too, Sir," Fred answered. He walked over to the two brothers and held out his hand. "I'm Fred Jones, by the way." He shook their hands. "These are my friends, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby Doo."

"Whoa! Is your dog staying here too?" Stan asked.

"Oh don't worry, Scooby won't cause any problems," Shaggy assured him.

"Mr. Pines, we really haven't had a lot of tourists come through here. I was trying to get some extra money to make up for lost sales."

"What do you mean, lost sales?" Stan spoke louder than he should have. He walked over to the cash register in front of Wendy and opened it. He quickly counted the money.

"You know, we get more people in the summer," Wendy quickly added. Stan stared at the register half confused and half annoyed.

"You probably need new anomalies," Stan said.

"Uh, Stan, maybe you can talk business with Soos another time when you don't have visitors," Ford suggested.

"Hey! This is important!" he yelled. "Keep your nose to your books and out of my business!"

Ford narrowed his eyes at Stan. "Sure, whatever you say," he said crossly. "I'll be unpacking." Ford said as he walked towards the door into the house. He turned to the kids and Scooby. "It was nice meeting you." He said before he left.

"Uh, wait a minute, where is he going? I have your old room, Mr. Pines and my grandma has his old room," Soos said.

"We already planned out where we're sleeping," Stan said. He leaned closely to Soos, "But we can't say it with them in the room," he looked at the gang then his eyes went to the vending machine. "Although I'm curious, where are those kids staying?"

"Oh, I made the old parlor into a bedroom. It's great!"

"Really? I gotta see this!" Stan said as he walked into the house. Soos followed along with the gang.

Stan looked inside the room that once was his parlor. His eyes gazed from the two twin beds and then to the dresser in the corner. He just stood and laughed.

"What's so funny?" Daphne asked.

"Oh, I just love where you put the beds, Soos." He turned to the kids. "Are all of you staying in here?"

"No, just the two girls," Soos said.

Stan turned to Velma and Daphne. "You realize you two are sleeping right where the coffin used to go? I mean, there was a dead guy laying right where you two are sleeping."

Daphne shuddered. "Ew! Why did you have to tell us that?"

Stan ignored her question and kept chuckling. "Okay, where are the guys staying?" he asked Soos.

"Up in the attic," Soos said. "They get a great view of the trees."

"You put them in Mabel and Dipper's room?" Stan questioned.

"Yeah. There's nowhere else for them to go."

"You realize my niece and nephew are going to be here in like, three hours?"

Soos froze with his mouth half open. "Oh, I thought they weren't coming till summer vacation.

"Hey, guess what? Today is the first day of Summer Vacation," Stan informed him.

"What?" Soos yelled as he ran into the kitchen where he looked at the calendar. Right on today's date was a big red circle and inside the circle were the words, 'Summer Vacation Begins.' "Oh man!" He hopped from one foot to the other in a panic. "What do I do?" The others joined him in the kitchen. He looked at the kids and Scooby. "I'm sorry Dudes. I forgot that—"

"We heard," said Fred. "It's fine."

"But where are you guys going to sleep?" Daphne asked.

"If we have to, well just set up the foam mattress in the back of the Mystery Machine," he answered.

"Mystery Machine?" Stan asked. "You mean that Hippie van out there? It belongs to you kids?"

"It's mine actually," Fred said proudly. "I bought it from this old guy who had a band back in the 60's. It's been a very faithful vehicle, and I keep that baby running like its brand new."

"Wow! I bet it's worth a lot of money. Hey can I use it for an attraction?"

"What?" Fred asked, astonished by the offer.

"It'll be great! You already got the right name for it. Mystery Machine and the Mystery Shack? Huh? Huh?" he tried to win favor with Fred.

"I don't know," he said.

"Okay, we'll split the profit equally, sixty—forty."

"How is that equal?" Velma asked.

"Okay, sounds like you kids are good at math. "Seventy-thirty."

"I don't think so," Fred answered.

"Fine, then I'm going to have to charge you for keeping the van on my property," Stan said finally.

Fred narrowed his eyes, "Are you serious?" He turned to his friends. "I guess we're not staying here then."

"Wait! Don't leave!" Soos cried out. He turned to Stan. "Mr. Pines, can we just charge the girls and leave it at that? There isn't another place to stay for miles. We really need more customers."

"Don't worry Soos, it's summer. Business will pick back up."

"Come on gang, I think we're done with the Mystery Shack," Fred said as he headed for the door.

Later, the gang sat in the Mystery Machine.

"So, this just got more complicated," Daphne said.

"Yeah Fred, if we don't stay here, how are we going to check out the basement?" Velma wondered.

"I know. You're right. But that old man just got me mad!" Fred admitted. "Using the Mystery Machine as an attraction? And what do we get out of it?"

"Like, he said we'd get some of the profits," Shaggy said.

"And we'd have a place to stay," Daphne added.

"Yeah, but Shaggy, Scooby and I would have to stay in the Mystery Machine," Fred returned.

Velma put her head in her hand, thinking out the problem. "Hmmm—well, I guess we'll just have to make it work. I'm rather curious why the only place to stay in this town is unavailable."

"That is really strange." Fred sat back, staring straight ahead as he tried to come up with the next plan.

"Ri'm rungry!" Scooby said.

"Yeah, let's get some food while we're thinking," Shaggy suggested.

"Yeah, let's go back to that diner. Maybe we can talk to that waitress again," Fred said.

"Like, why her?" Shaggy asked.

"I agree with Fred," Velma added. "I can't explain it, but I feel like she knows a lot more than what she says."

"Okay, so we're off to the diner." Fred put the van in gear and they took off down the road.

The gang walked into Greasy's Diner to find the restaurant was in the middle of a mad breakfast rush. Every booth was full and so were most of the tables.

"Let me guess, this is the only restaurant in town?" Velma asked sarcastically.

"It's going to be hard to get that waitress' attention, but for the sake of this mystery, we need to talk to her," Fred noted.

The gang waited a moment to see if anyone was leaving. It didn't seem like anyone was going to leave any time soon.

"Hey, look gang, she's over there," Daphne said pointing at Lazy Susan who stood by the motionless display case where there were numerous pies. She banged on the top of the contraption, "Why won't you pies just spin!" she yelled.

"Excuse me," Fred began as the gang walked over.

"Oh hi there," she greeted. "I'm trying to make the pies spin so people will eat them."

"Like I'll eat the pies even if they're standing still," Shaggy said. "Besides, they're easier to catch if they aren't moving."

"Hmmm, I never thought of that," she replied. "Okay, I'll leave it alone then."

"So, we wondered if we could ask you some questions," Velma began. "Are you aware that the original guy who owns the Mystery Shack is back in town?"

A big smile formed on Susan's mouth. "Stan is back?" she almost screamed. She swung her arm, making contact with the display case, sending it around several times. "Did he mention me? I've been leaving so many voice messages, but I don't know if he got them 'cause he never called back." The gang exchanged bewildered glances.

"Well, no, he didn't mention you," Fred began. "But you mentioned him the last time we were here. How long have you known him?"

"Oh, for years and years. I went on his first tour of the Mystery Shack. He showed us all this electronic thingy and it zapped my eye," she pointed to the lazy eye. "It's never been the same since."

"Oh my gosh! Shouldn't you sue him?" Daphne asked.

She waved her hand. "Oh, it wasn't his fault."

"Yeah, it actually is," Fred told her. "You were on his tour when it happened and he's liable for anything that happens to his customers."

Lazy Susan stared blankly at him for a moment. "Can you tell Stan I said 'hi?'"

"I guess so," Fred responded. "So, you've been in the Mystery Shack, how much did he show during the tour?"

"Oh, I don't really remember much after that zap. I really don't remember much these days," she laughed.

"How about a strange vending machine?" Shaggy asked. "Did he show you the vending machine?"

"Vending machine? I don't remember anything like that."

"Well, thanks anyway," Velma said. Lazy Susan left to tend to some people who just entered the diner.

"So, that went nowhere," Fred said feeling defeated.

"Hey, look over at that booth," Daphne said pointing to a plump man in a sheriff uniform across from a tall, lanky deputy.

"Like you want to talk to the Sheriff?" Shaggy asked. "Why would he help us?"

"It's a great idea, actually," Velma stated. "He should know more about this town than anyone else." They walked over to the two guys who were busy chowing down on some pancakes.

"Excuse me, sir?" Fred began. The two stopped eating and looked up. They both raised an eyebrow to the stranger standing in front of them.

"You need something, son?" The sheriff asked.

Fred stared at the two men. He suddenly lost his voice. He had to quickly remind himself that he's talked to law enforcement officers before.

"Yeah, my name is Fred Jones and my friends and I are from out of town and—"

"Visitors huh?" the sheriff asked. "Well, I'm Sheriff Blubs and this is Deputy Durland," he said kindly. "We haven't gotten many visitors this year."

"Why's that, sir?" Fred asked. "I mean, its' a shame. This is a tourist town. It must be bad for business."

"We do just fine," Sheriff Blubs assured him. "But, there's nothing to see in this quiet town."

"It's a quiet, quiet town. Nothing to see here," Durland quickly added.

"Well, advertising pamphlets says otherwise," Velma, said.

"Where are you all from?" Sheriff Blubs asked.

"We're from Coolsville, California," Fred answered.

"Oh, more Californians I see. You don't think your towns over there are interesting enough so you come here, huh?" he said rather rudely.

"What's the big deal?" Daphne asked. "This place is just a tourist trap right? You don't want people to visit your town anymore?"

"Well, first of all, we've had some shady people come from out of town and second, there's no place to stay since our only Inn is being repaired."

"We were told it was being renovated," Velma said.

"That too. Look, you seem like nice kids, but it's probably best if you just move along to another town."

"Yeah, we don't need more visitors causin' problems," Deputy Durland backed up his partner.

"I see. Well, I guess we'll just go then," Fred said as he turned away. "Come on gang, let's get going."

"But what about breakfast?" Shaggy asked.

"Yeah, Fred, let's at least eat here. More tables are clearing up," Daphne said.

Fred looked around the diner. There were a few booths open now.

"Well, okay."

The gang sat down and waited for Lazy Susan to come over. Many of the older customers already headed out. Only people still around were a few families with kids over by some of the games, one of them being a 'manly strength tester.'

"There's something really strange going on," Velma admitted. "The only hotel is unavailable, there's supposedly some creepy stuff in the basement of the Mystery Shack—"

"What do you mean, supposedly?" Shaggy asked offensively.

"—And now, the sheriff and deputy basically told us to get out of their town," Fred said.

"I think we should go back to the Mystery Shack," Velma said. "We have a lead. Shaggy and Scooby found their way into that basement and now we have to do the same. Questioning the townsfolk isn't going to get us anywhere. It just confirms that visitors from other towns aren't welcome."

"Yeah, I guess." Fred said. "I don't want to pay for keeping the mystery Machine parked on the lot, but I guess I'm going to have to."

"What about Soos? You still want me to talk to him?" Shaggy asked.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Fred responded. "We need that combination and also, he can tell you about why everyone is acting so weird."

"Why is Shaggy the one questioning Soos?" Daphne wondered.

"Trust me Daph, I think the two have a lot in common," Fred retorted.


	5. Chapter 5: Seeking Another Passage

Chapter 5: Seeking Another Passage

The gang arrived at the Mystery Shack to see Stan giving a tour to a family of three. He wore the suit with the fez and eye patch while Soos stood next to him in a tee shirt with a question mark on the front and a baseball cap. They stood at the strange rock face statue. Everyone got out of the vehicle and walked over.

"Is this rock a metaphor for something?" the man asked.

"Yeah, it's a metaphor for how we spend our lives like rocks," Stan answered. "Now if you'll direct your attention to the Sack of Mystery. Put your money in and watch it disappear," he held the sack out with a wide grin. The family looked at the sack, but didn't do anything. Stan didn't budge. Finally, the man and his wife put their money into the sack.

"Thanks for the tour," said the man.

"Yeah, that was fun," said his wife.

"Where are we going now, Mom?" their little boy asked.

"Well Son, since the only hotel is not in business, I guess we're leaving Gravity Falls." The family walked off. Stan turned to Soos.

"See, the key to this sack is that you don't put it away until they put their money inside of it," he explained.

"Oh, now I see, Mr. Pines," Soos said.

The two suddenly noticed the gang standing nearby.

"Oh, hey there, Dudes," Soos greeted.

"Oh great, the Hippies are back," Stan said sarcastically.

Fred narrowed his eyes and was about to retort when Velma gave him a solemn look saying that they had a mission.

"Uh, I wondered, how much were you going to charge me for keeping the Van here?"

"Well, let me see, the old make of the vehicle, plus it's size, um, about a hundred a night."

"What? I'm not even paying that for my room," Fred responded.

"You're not?" Stan turned to Soos. "How much are you charging them?"

"About seventy-five," he said.

"Seventy-five?" Stan burst out.

Soos became nervous, turning his eyes away and rubbing his neck. "Well, I didn't want to charge too much. It didn't seem fair. They came all this way and had no place to stay.

"How about, I just keep paying you the same for the vehicle as I was for the room?" Fred suggested.

"Okay, I guess so," Stan agreed. "Why is it suddenly dead around here? Barely anyone is coming here."

"Maybe it has to do with the Sheriff telling people they can't stay in the town," Daphne said.

"What?" Stan screeched.

"Yeah, like the sheriff made it clear that he wanted us to leave," Shaggy added.

"Okay—" Stan shook his head. "Maybe I do need a better attraction. The option is still open to use your Mystery Machine."

"Well, if you're going to use my van, then I shouldn't have to pay you anything for keeping it here," Fred said.

"Deal!" he responded. Then he walked back towards the shack.

"Like, what just happened?" Shaggy asked out loud.

"It looks like Fred just volunteered the Mystery Machine as a tourist attraction," Velma said.

"Wait a minute—" Fred grabbed his head, trying to figure out what he just got himself and the Mystery Machine into.

"Okay, well, Mr. Pines needed me to get some stuff done, so I'll see you Dudes later," Soos said before waving goodbye.  
"Weren't we going to talk to him, Fred?" Daphne asked.

"Oh, right. Sorry, I got caught up in all the haggling," Fred answered. He turned to shaggy. "Shaggy, you and Scooby should go talk to him now. The girls and I can talk to the cashier girl."

Shaggy nodded. "Like, okay." The gang went their separate ways.

Shaggy and Scooby found Soos nailing a sign of one of the trees that surrounded the Mystery Shack.

"Doo, doo, doo..." he sang as he pounded a nail into the wood. "Pounding nails in the sign, hope I don't hit my thumb," he sang.

Shaggy waved at him, "Hey man, like, uh, what's cha doin'?"

Soos turned around. "Oh hey, Dudes! I'm just hanging some signs for Mr. Pines." He laughed. "Feels like old times."

"Oh really? You used to hang signs all the time for Mr. Pines?"

"Well, sometimes. Or he made his grand nephew, Dipper hang them."

"Oh, I see. So, uh, how long have you worked for Mr. Pines?"

"Since I was a boy and then at the end of the summer, my dream came true as I became the owner of the Shack." Soos wiped a tear from his eye.

"Oh, that's groovy man. So, like, if you've been around for a while, you've probably seen every part of the shack, right?"

"Boy have I! I've even been in the secret place in the basement that I'm not supposed to mention."

"Like, the creepy basement? Whoops, I'm not supposed to mention we were down there."

"Me neither, Dudes," Soos replied. "If I did, Mr. Pines would fire me or worse."

"So, if you've been down there, do you know the code?"

"Oh no Dudes, sorry, but I can't say anything else."

"Like, okay. Me and Scoob are going to get some snacks."

"Okay, dudes." Soos went back to pounding the nail in the sign.

Shaggy turned to Scooby. "Well, I guess we're done. Let's see how Fred and the girls are doing."

Shaggy and Scooby entered the Mystery Shack where the rest of the gang stood by the counter talking to Wendy who now wore a blue and white hat with a pine tree on the front.

"Listen, I really don't know any of the answers to what you're asking me," Wendy said sharply. "I gotta get back to work or Stan will fire me."

"I thought you worked for Soos," Fred pointed out. Wendy groaned.

"Hey! Stop harassing my cashier Hippies!" Stan yelled as he walked into the shop.

"We're not Hip— Never mind," Fred responded with a defeated tone.

Shaggy and Scooby walked over. "Like, how's everything going?" Shaggy asked.

"Terrible!" Fred exclaimed.

"Maybe we should try something else," Velma said. The gang moved to a more secluded part of the shop where no one was around.

"So, Like Soos admitted that there's something secret in the basement, but he won't give us a code," Shaggy said.

"Interesting," said Fred. "Well, how about this, we'll wait until everyone is asleep and go investigate this vending machine."

"But, like, we still don't know how to get down there," Shaggy said.

"Wait, I have an idea," Velma began. "You did it once Shaggy. Which snacks did you get?" Velma asked.

"Oh yeah, I was like trying to get a nutty chocolate bar and bag of chips at the same time."

"Okay, try to get the same items and we'll see if the sequence opens the passage," she suggested.

"I guess so, but like, do me and Scoob really need to come along?"

"If anything, Shaggy, you and Scooby should lead the way," Fred told him.

Shaggy gulped down his fears. "Like I was afraid of that."

"Don't worry Shaggy, we're not doing all of this until tonight," Daphne said.

"Like we're going into that creepy basement at night? Tell me again why I shouldn't worry?"

"Hey, I heard you guys are mystery solvers?" Said a voice. The gang tuned to a boy wearing a lumberjack hat.

"Hi, you're Mr. Pines' great nephew, right?" Velma asked.

"Yeah, I'm Dipper. What made you come to Gravity Falls?"

"Well, we found some stuff online about strange things happening here," Fred answered.

"Oh—well, nothing strange happens here," Dipper said. The gang almost did a simultaneous sigh. "At least, not anymore."

All eyes went to Dipper.

"So what strange things did happen here?" Velma asked.

"Well—"

"Dipper! Get in here and unclog the toilet!" Stan yelled from the bathroom.

"What? Come on!" he cried.

"We'll talk more later," Fred told him.

"Okay, come up to the attic, that's the room where my sister and I stay during the summer," Dipper said before racing off to do backbreaking chores for his uncle.

It was around ten-o-clock when everyone settled down for the night and quiet settled over the shack.

"So now we're talking to the boy?" Shaggy asked.

"We're doing both," Fred told him. Velma and Daphne are going to talk to him. We're going down to the basement."

"But, I'm still not sure if I can get the combination right."

"Well, you're gonna try," Fred said firmly.

Shaggy gulped as he thought about going back into the creepy room in the basement.

Daphne and Velma headed upstairs while the guys headed into the shop. Shaggy tried for the same snack, but instead of opening up the vending machine, a chocolate bar and a bag of chips fell from the case. Fred gave him more quarters.

"Try again, Shag," he urged.

Shaggy tried getting the chips first, then the candy bar. However, he received the same two snacks again.

"At least, I'm getting some food for later," Shaggy said

"Reah!" Scooby agreed wagging his tail.

"Hmmm, maybe something in the shack will tell us the combination.

Velma and Daphne stood on the second floor of the shack at the bottom of the staircase going up into the attic.

"So, here we are," Daphne said.

"Yep," Velma agreed.

"How are we doing this? Are we asking about the shack in general or are we are going to the heart of the matter?" Daphne asked.

"Let's just see how they respond to us first," Velma answered.

The girls climbed the stairs and poked their heads through the opening into the attic. Dipper lay on one of the twin beds reading a hard cover book while Mabel read a teen magazine. Mabel was the first to notice them; she looked up and smiled.

"Hey!" she called. Dipper looked up.

"Oh, great, you made it up here!" he said with excitement. "What about the others?"

"They're a little busy at the moment," Velma responded.

Daphne noticed the shooting star embroider on Mabel's sweater. "Cute sweater."

"Thanks! It's one of my best," Mabel said. She ran over towards Velma and Daphne and showed them the page from her magazine. "I took this test to see which type of friends I have. There are different groups like Nerds, Jocks, Fashions and Loners. I'm a Fashion apparently.

"That's awesome girl!" Daphne said. "Sounds like me!"

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Really Mabel, a magazine can't tell you who you are."

"Dipper didn't like where the test put him," Mabel said.

"It said I'm a Nerd," he said sourly.

"I'd probably be put in the same category," Velma said.

"Really?" Dipper asked. Velma walked over to him.

"What are you reading?" she asked. Her eyes looked over the hard cover book with a picture of the parts of an atom on the front.

"Oh this is my Physics book. I'm taking Introduction to Physics next year."

"How old are you?" Velma asked.

"Thirteen," he said proudly. "I'm going to be a freshman this year."

"I didn't take Physics until I was a senior," Velma responded. "You must be in an accelerated program."

"Yeah, sort of. The test I took before school ended said I didn't have to take the normal science class. I could choose any of the higher level sciences, so I picked Physics."

"Is that the field you wan to work in when you're older?"

"Partly. I'm going to study anomalies."

"Anomal-what?" she asked.

"Anomalies. Things that are strange and supernatural."

"Listen, you're still young, but as you get older, you learn that there is a logical reason for everything."

"Well, we've already dealt with the supernatural," Dipper said.

"What do you mean?" Velma asked. Dipper pulled out a notebook from under his bed. He opened it to a page with several pictures of strange creatures. Each photo was taped on the page with writing next to it. Velma gazed over the pictures of what appeared to be a monster formed by a bunch of gnomes, a black creature with straw hat and a bear with multiple heads.

"This was the first creature we faced," Dipper said pointing to the gnome monster. "See, my sister started dating this weird Emo guy, which I at first thought was a zombie, but turned out to be a group of gnomes who wanted Mabel to be their queen." Velma stared at Dipper with disbelief as she furrowed her eyebrows skeptically. Dipper cleared his throat. "And that guy we met on Summerween. He—uh, had a problem with kids who throw out the 'unwanted' candy. We accidently insulted him so he told us to get five-hundred pieces of candy by the end of the night or he was going to eat us."

"Summerween?" Velma questioned.

"Yeah, you know how people do Christmas in July, well, here in gravity Falls, we do Halloween in June."

Velma studied the pictures, trying to find any proof of them being fake.

"And what about the bears?" she asked.

"Oh, Multi-bear, yeah, I was learning how to be a man from these Manotaurs and they said I had to kill the Multi-bear to prove myself. But then I found out the Multi-bear was a good guy and we both liked the same music." Velma kept her skeptical glare on Dipper. "You're going to be a great author of a supernatural-Thriller one day," she remarked.

"Hey, all of these things are real. You should talk to my uncle Ford."

"He believes in this stuff?"

"He's the reason I do!" Dipper raised his voice with excitement. "He wrote these journals—" Dipper stopped. His mouth turned down.

"What's wrong?" Velma asked.

"Sorry, I just get kind of upset when I think about the journals. They were filled with all this great stuff and now all three of them are gone."

"What happened to them?"

"It's a long story."

Velma studied Dipper for a long moment. "Why did you invite us up here to talk?" she asked. "You don't even know who we are."

"Yes I do."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Dipper walked over to his dresser and took out a magazine entitled, 'Great Mystery Solvers.' On the front was a picture of the entire Mystery Inc. gang. He handed it to Velma. She raised an eyebrow as if not expecting it.

"Oh, I remember this. We had just solved one of our biggest mysteries and were asked to give a photo for this magazine. As I understood, it wasn't really that popular. I'm surprised you have a copy."

"I think what you guys do is really interesting. But, the monster ends up being someone in a mask. My whole family and even my friends have seen and experienced weird things in this town."

"Well, I need proof," Velma said.

"Maybe we can both talk to my uncle. He can give you all the proof you need," Dipper said with growing enthusiasm.

"Okay. I'll take that challenge," Velma agreed.

Meanwhile, Mabel and Daphne were hunched over a teen magazine, reading the horoscope page.

"I'm a Virgo, born on August 31st," Mabel said.

"I'm a Gemini," Daphne replied.

"Okay, well according to this, you are going to have a big summer romance."

"Really?" Daphne asked. Velma walked over.

"I wonder how the guys are doing? We should let Dipper and Mabel go to sleep."

"Yeah, unlikely!" Mabel giggled. "This is our first day back to Gravity Falls since last year. I'm so wired!"

"Well, have a good night," Velma said.

"Yeah, we'll do some makeovers tomorrow," Daphne told her.

As the girls walked to the stairs, Velma brushed against the dresser, an album dropped onto the floor. As Velma picked it up, a piece of paper fell out.

"That's okay," Mabel said. "That's my scrapbook. Just leave it there." Velma put the album back on the dresser. Mabel went back to her magazine. Velma noticed the piece of paper. Picking it up she saw an odd combination of letters and numbers. Neither kid noticed the paper in her hand. She and Daphne left without saying another word.

Fred, Shaggy and Scooby stood in Stan's office.

"This is the only other place we can search right now," Fred told them.

"L-Like, m-maybe this is a sign we shouldn't go into that basement," Shaggy shuttered.

"And I keep telling you we're getting all the signs that there's a mystery to solve and we need to get down there to learn more," Fred retorted. He began looking through the desk drawers, which were mostly empty.

"For someone who has a business, he sure doesn't keep much around. What about receipts for different shipments? No tax papers?"

Scooby noticed a big moose head on the wall. The left antler looked a little crooked. He put a paw on it to move the antler to the correct position. Suddenly, the wall moved. Fred and Shaggy turned to see the secret room.

"Good job Scooby!" Fred congratulated. They walked into the room where a monitor sat with a tape inside a VCR. The tape was dated March 15 of the current year. Fred pushed in the tape; it automatically played. Soos and Wendy appeared on screen. They stood in front of the counter after store hours.

"So, I can come work here again this summer, right?" Wendy asked.

"Sure. It will be like old times," Soos said.

"Hey Soos, I wanted to ask you something. Are you really keeping everything that happened last year a secret?"

"I don't think we have a choice," Soos replied.

"Of course we have a choice!" Wendy cried. "An inter-dimensional triangle turned Gravity Falls upside down and we're just supposed to pretend it didn't happen?"

"Whoa! Whoa! Not so loud," Soos warned.

"Who's going to hear me? No one's here!" Soos' eyes went to the floor and his mouth turned down. "Hey, it's okay," Wendy assured him. "Bill's gone. He's not coming back. Look, me and my friends still sometimes talk about what happened. We were threatened by other people in town not to say anything, but I think its stupid."

Soos thought in silence fore a moment. "Yeah, I guess you're right. We should be able to discuss it with whomever we want. I just don't want to upset anyone."

"Soos, stop being afraid! We faced so much last year. In fact, we were the survivors! Remember? We fought through all the weirdness. We fought out of that bubble Bill put Mabel in and we made the shack into a giant robot, which was your idea by the way."

"No, it was McGucket's idea."

"But, you suggested he watch Anime and add gun swords.

Soos became quiet.

"You're right, Wendy."

The tape stopped and the screen turned to snow. Fred, Shaggy and Scooby stood in complete silence. Fred looked down at the VCR. On it was a sticky note with the words, 'must find a way to erase tape.'

"Someone, I'm guessing Soos, wanted to get rid of this tape so no one would hear the conversation between him and Windy."

"Like, I wish I didn't hear it. What did he mean by inter-dimensional triangle?"

"I don't know. I'd like to know who this Bill is and what exactly happened last summer," Fred answered.

"I believe we have what you're looking for." The guys turned to Velma as she and Daphne entered the room.

"Like, what did you two find?" Shaggy asked. Velma showed the piece of paper.

"What's this?" Fred asked.

"We're not sure, but Shaggy said there was a code to the vending machine and this might be it."

The gang came out of the office and walked to the door to the shop. Fred tried the doorknob but found the door locked.

"Who locked this? We left it unlocked," he said.

"So we can't get to the vending machine?" Shaggy asked. "Too bad," he said obviously not too upset.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it," Daphne said. Taking out one of her hairpins, she used it to work the lock until she heard a click. Fred turned the doorknob and entered the shop.

Inside the shop, Fred input the code on the vending machine. The lights formed the letter C, then the front of the vending machine opened.

Fred, Daphne and Velma stared wide-eyed while Shaggy and Scooby returned smug glances.

"We've seen a lot of spooky secret passageway, but who would have guess this one. He stared down into the darkness. "Now we can get to the bottom of this mystery—literally."


	6. Chapter 6: A Small Town Of Secrets

Chapter 6: A Small Town Of Secrets

Dirt caked the walls; a spider crawled across the ceiling. Fred shined his flashlight on the elevator door.

"Which floor did you and Scooby go to?" Fred asked Shaggy.

"The second floor," he answered. Fred pushed the button. Shaggy and Scooby began quivering as the elevator door opened. Everyone stepped inside.

Down on the third floor, Stan and Ford lay in their individual sleeping bags. They sectioned off an area in the far corner where they could sleep.

"So I convinced those kids to let me use their van for an attraction," Stan said.

"Why? It doesn't really fit in," Ford pointed out.

"They call it the Mystery Machine. There has to be a reason they call it that. The one skinny kids said that no matter where they take the van, the gang always finds something scary."

"Listen Stanley, you just need to let Soos be in charge now. You're retired, remember?"

"I don't see a problem with helping him out."

"I guess not, but let him run the show, you know?"

"Why are you so concerned?" Stan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's just that—this passed year has been the best ever. I felt like we had that bond we did when we were kids. Strange enough, the hunt for the anomalies led us back here and that concerns me. I need your help. I don't want you getting distracted."

"I won't get distracted," Stan promised. "I'm just worried because the shack isn't getting the same business and I feel I need to help fix that. Soos is new at being a businessman. He needs some guidance."

"Alright, its okay if you help him, but that's it."

Ford rolled over and tried to sleep, but he couldn't. Plus, he swore he heard footsteps from up above. He turned his head to look at Stan who somehow already fell asleep and was snoring away. Ford let out a long sigh and closed his eyes. Then they opened again. He looked across the room at the entrance to the elevator.

The elevator door opened onto the second floor of the basement. The Mystery Inc. gang stepped out into a tiny hallway that led to another door where the gang wandered into the study. Shaggy noticed that changed was the chalkboard was flipped back the other way again.

"T-that c-chalkboard—" Shaggy stuttered as he pointed at it. "L-look at it—it has all these weird pictures—"

Fred turned the chalkboard around to show the other side, which was also blank.

"Well, that was anti-climatic," Velma remarked.

"But—but, there was this picture—and the words—"

"There's nothing there now," Daphne said.

"You don't believe me?" Shaggy asked. He turned to Scooby. "I guess I should have taken the picture." Scooby ran over to the machine he used the previous night.

"Rhat rabout ris?" he asked, holding the helmet connected by a tube to the machine. He put it on his head, but nothing happened.

"What is that thing?" Velma asked.

"Like Scoob, I told you not to mess with that thing," Shaggy warned.

"Rut, rit read my roughts."

"It's not doing anything Scooby, sorry," Fred told him.

"And it won't ever do anything. The monitor is damaged," Velma stated.

"I will say Shaggy, even if nothing strange happens while we're down here. Finding this place is interesting enough," Fred said to him.

"But what does it mean, Fred?" Daphne asked.

"How about looking through some of these notes?" Shaggy suggested as he picked up a notebook.

"What's this?" he wondered.

"Nothing you should be looking at!" A voice yelled from the door. Everyone turned to see Ford standing there with his arms crossed.

"Ruh-oh!" Scooby cried.

"We got caught?" Fred questioned. "We never get caught! Well, there was that one time, but—"

"What the hell are you kids doing down here?" Ford yelled. "How did you even get down here?"

"Well, the first time, I was just getting some snacks out of the vending machine for me and Scooby and like, the whole thing opened up!"

"First, it's Scooby and me, and second, what do you mean the first time?"

"We're sorry sir," Fred began. "We didn't mean to snoop. It's just that the whole town is acting strange. There isn't a place to stay the night and when Soos let us stay here—well—"

"Well, what? You just decided to start poking around where you don't belong?"

"Sorry, mystery solving is our thing. We thought the answers to why this town is acting strange might be down here," Daphne explained.

"Yeah, besides, I didn't want to come down here again. The last time Scoob and me were down here, we heard this whispering," Shaggy explained.

"Whispering?" Ford asked, his eyes surveyed the area. "Could you make out what was being said?" he asked.

"Like, we recorded it," Shaggy said. Taking out the tape recorder, he hit play. Ford listened to the nonsensical chatter.

"I've heard something like this before. I realized that it was being said backwards. Is there any way to slow down the message and play it in reverse?" Shaggy hit the play and rewind button together. Everyone listened. At first, the voice was faint, barely above a whisper, then the voice grew louder and louder.

"A-X-O-L-O-T-L, my time has come to burn. I invoke the ancient powers that I may return." The words repeated themselves over and over again. Ford gritted his teeth as he suddenly recognized the voice. "No, there's no way he could—" Ford trailed off. "You kids need to just—go! Get out of this town!"

"What's going on?" Fred asked.

"I'm sorry, it's just not safe for you here!"

"Like, we're fine with leaving," Shaggy said.

"I guess so," Fred agreed. "For now."

Confused, the gang followed Ford to the elevator, which he set for the first floor. They climbed up the stairs and towards the back of the vending machine where Ford used his remote control to open it. As the gang walked into the shop, Ford looked at them with sincere eyes.

"It's nothing personal. It's just better this way." He left back into the passageway.

Moments later the gang sat in the Mystery Machine.

"So now what's the plan, Fred?" Daphne asked.

"We could drive into the woods, and set up our tent," Velma suggested.

"I think we should just leave town," Shaggy said.

"Reah, reave rown!" Scooby agreed.

"Sorry, not yet," Fred said.

He put the Mystery Machine in gear and drove off.

The van moved on down the road for a few minutes until they saw a cemetery up ahead.

"Hey look, someone is over there," Velma said pointing at the graveyard

"Like, good for them. Must be some people who like spooky stuff," Shaggy said.

As the van approached the graveyard, the gang recognized one of the faces.

"Hey! Isn't that Wendy?" Daphne asked.

"Yeah, I wonder what she and her friends are up to?" Fred said. He stopped the Mystery Machine just in front of the gate. Everyone got out of the van. Fred pulled on the large iron gate. It barely budged an inch. Then, he noticed the huge padlock.

"It's locked? But how did they get inside?" he wondered.

"My guess is that they went up and over," Velma said gesturing at the spiked black fence.

"I can try to pick the lock," Daphne said. She tried to use the hairpin trick again, but she couldn't get the hairpin side to work the lock. "Uh-oh, It's too rusted."

"Then, I guess we're going up and over just like they did," Fred replied.

"Are you kidding?" Daphne asked, aghast. "I'm not jumping a fence in this outfit."

"I guess you girls don't have to, but me, Shaggy and Scooby are going," Fred said.

"Great, like Fred volunteered us again for something we have no interest in doing Scoob," Shaggy whined. Scooby began whimpering.

Fred hoisted Shaggy onto his shoulders. Shaggy easily reached the top of the fence and hopped over.

"Now you, Scoob," Fred said cupping his hands. Scooby climbed up and Fred lifted him up. Once Scooby was over, Fred jumped up to pull himself over.

"Be our lookout, girls," Fred told them.

"I'll text you if we see any trouble," Daphne replied.

The guys made their way over to the other teens. Wendy sat next to Robbie who sported his usual black hoodie with a broken heart on the front. Next to him was his girlfriend, Tambre who had wild pink hair. Then, there were the two skinny, generic looking teens, Nate and Lee sitting further down the hill. All of them watched Thompson, a heavyset kid creep over to an open grave. He stopped for a moment and turned back to his friends.

"Do it! Do it!" they chanted. Thompson turned towards the open grave, took a deep breath and jumped inside. His friend all cheered raising their hands.

"Like, is he crazy?" Shaggy exclaimed.

Suddenly, Thompson screamed. Wendy ran over and looked down at him. He tried to climb out, but he was too deep into the ground and couldn't get out.

"You need some help?" Wendy asked. She reached out her hand and crabbed his chubby hand. Fred rushed over to grab the other one, and they pulled him up. Wendy turned to Fred.

"Hey, you guys like breaking into graveyards too?" she asked.

"Not really," Shaggy laughed nervously.

"We wondered if now would be a good time to talk to you, Wendy?" Fred asked. "You know, since you wouldn't talk to us earlier at the Mystery Shack."

What's this about?" Wendy asked strongly.

Well, let's start with a certain conversation you had with Soos a few months ago." Wendy's eyes opened wide.

"Me and Soos?" she asked. She grew quiet. "I don't remember. I've had lots of conversations with Soos, some at three-o-clock in the morning."  
"Like, not even a conversation about an inter-dimensional triangle taking over the town?" Shaggy asked.

"Reah, rat rounded rary," Scooby said.

"What did you say?" Wendy asked.

"Nothing! Dogs can't talk," Robbie said walking over.

"Like, Scooby can talk and he said that the conversation was really scary."

"It sounded like something bad happened last summer, and you guys are trying to hide it," Fred said pointing finger at her.

"Listen! I don't have to tell you anything!" Wendy tossed crudely at him.

Suddenly, Fred's phone vibrated. He looked down at the screen to see Daphne's text.

"Uh-oh! We should get out of here. Our friends just spotted the sheriff," Fred informed everyone.

"Who cares?" Robbie said smugly.

"We probably should leave," Wendy said. Everyone ran to the fence. Most of Wendy's friends were already over the fence. Only Thompson was having problems getting over. Wendy pushed him over the rest of the way, causing him to land hard on his stomach. The hefty kid managed to get to his feet and race off.

Once everyone was over the fence, Wendy and Robbie started to make a break for it before the Sheriff caught them.

"Over here!" Shaggy yelled from the back of the Mystery Machine. Wendy and Robbie ran over and jumped inside. Shaggy shut the doors.

"Wendy, you and your friend need to stay down!" Fred warned. Wendy and Robbie ducked under the back of the front seat. Fred rolled down the window as Sheriff Blubs walked over.

"Good evening, Officer," Fred greeted respectfully.

"What are you kids still doing here?" he asked. "You should be long gone by now."

"We're here, visiting friends. We aren't violating any laws," Velma said.

"How about curfew?" he responded. "All good kids should be home in bed."

"Truthfully sir, I'm eighteen, so that rule doesn't apply to me," Fred told him.

"What about the rest of your friends?"

"We're all eighteen, sir," Daphne said.

"I'm actually nineteen," Shaggy said. "Scooby is seven in dog years, but older than all of us in people years."

"I even have my ID," Fred said showing his license.

"Well all I can do then is strongly caution you kids to stay out of trouble," the Sheriff warned.

"Will do," Fred replied. He started down the road. Wendy and Robbie peeked their head over the front seat.

"Thanks," Wendy said. "That was really cool."

"No problem," Fred replied. "But now you need to do something for us."

Wendy narrowed her eyes on Fred. "You want me to talk about 'the incident' that happened last summer," she said.

"It would help," he admitted.

"Alright. It shouldn't be kept a secret anyway. First tell me what you know,"

"Well, we've all been in the basement of the Mystery Shack," Velma said. "Or at least one of the floors. We saw there are two floors under the shack and we went to the second floor. We still don't know what's down on the third floor."

"Soos didn't tell you about the talk we had?" Wendy asked.

"Nope. We saw the actual tape ourselves," Fred responded. "We'd like to know who this Bill is you mentioned."

Wendy gritted her teeth. "You mean the inter-dimensional demon that came here and turned all my friends and family into stone statues? He's gone now!"

"But, why is everyone so afraid to talk about it?" Daphne asked.

"Because even though a bunch of spooky stuff always happens in this town, people are too scared to admit it," Robbie said hastily.

"Bill changed our world upside down and madness was everywhere," Wendy explained. "He called it Weirdmageddon."

"Like , we saw that word on the chalkboard, Scooby," Shaggy said.

"I'm guessing Ford erased everything that chalkboard," Velma added.

"Oh, Dipper and Mabel's uncle. You've met him?" Wendy asked.

Shaggy laughed nervously. "Yeah, he-uh, isn't too happy with us right now. We got caught snooping."

"Hey, at least he let you live," she said carelessly. "Dipper and Mabel have two really hard core uncles. You really don't want to piss them off."

"Don't worry about that," Fred said crossly. "How did you all survive last summer? How did you stop this Weirdmageddon?"

"Ford knew about this ancient wheel with different symbols on it. It was supposed to defeat Bill and get rid of the weirdness.

"I used my destiny hoodie!" Robbie said proudly.

Wendy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, strange enough, there were ten of us who fit these symbols. Me, Robbie, Soos, Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Ford and that old crazy guy, the snobby girl and—oh yeah, Gideon. You don't need to know much about him. Somehow, each of us represented a picture on this circle graph," Wendy explained.

"So, you used this wheel to stop Bill?" Fred asked.

"Well, no. We would have if Stan and Ford—" Wendy sighed. "Things didn't go as planned."

"How did this Weirdmagedon start?" Velma asked.

"My friends and I were in the graveyard when we were attacked by these eyeball bats. They used beams from their eye to turn our friends into stone."

"I would have gotten away if—" Robbie tried to think of something that would excuse him for being captured. "—If I didn't trip on that stupid tree stump. I punched most of those bats!"

"Robbie, you tried to take a selfie while running away from the bats. I got away though. My dad gave my brothers and me Apocalypse training."

"Didn't know there was training for that," Fred responded.

"But how did this whole thing happen?" Velma asked. "Inter-dimensional beings usually don't exist, let alone take over a town."

"That's where Dipper and Mabel's uncle comes in," Wendy responded. "He made a portal that went into Bill's world. He didn't realize what would happen until it was too late."

"I don't believe one can make a portal between worlds," Velma said.

"After last summer, I believe anything is possible," Wendy said firmly.

"Well, this has been eye opening," Fred stated. "I've been thinking about why the only hotel in this town is unavailable. Obviously it keeps away out of towners. I wonder what else is going on there?"

"If you're thinking what I'm thinking, Fred. We need to go to that Inn," Velma said.

"Like what do you think is going on there?" Shaggy asked.

"Let's go and find out," Fred responded.


	7. Chapter 7: Checking Inn

Chapter 7: Checking Inn

Fred pulled up to the Inn. The entire place looked dark inside and untouched for some time.

"So, here's the town's inn," Wendy said. "I've honestly never been inside."

"Thanks for telling me where to go, Wendy," Fred answered. "Now let's go see if there's anything alive inside."

"Or anything dead," Robbie joked.

"Like don't say that," Shaggy said quivering.

"Dude, what's wrong? Why are you shaking?" Wendy asked.

"Looks like he's just a tall, skinny chicken," Robbie jested.

"Reah, we're roth ricken," Scooby said as he flapped his arms.

"What did he say?" Robbie asked.

"They're both chicken," Daphne translated.

"Don't worry, we deal with this all the time," Velma said. She held up a box with some special treats. "Will you two go in for some Scooby Snacks?" she shook the box.

"You're bribing them with dog biscuits?" Wendy questioned. It seemed appropriate for Scooby, but she was surprised when Shaggy helped gulp down the whole box.

"Are you ready now?" Velma asked.

"Yep!" Both of them replied.

Everyone got out of the van and walked over to a large gate with a padlock.

"Alright, up and over!" Robbie yelled as he jumped up to grab the top of the brick wall.

"Hang on," Daphne stopped him. "We may not have to do that." She took out her hairpin and once again maneuvered the gears inside the lock. This one wasn't rusted. After a few moments, there was a click and the lock popped open.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Wendy asked, astonished.

"It's something I picked up being a girl scout" Daphne responded.

Wendy raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Really? Can you teach me? In return I can show you how to hotwire a car."

Daphne squint her eyes at Wendy's offer. "Uh, thanks, but I don't think I'll ever need to know that.

Wendy waved her hand carelessly. "Pff! Everyone should learn how to hotwire a car. It was useful when the apocalypse happened last summer." Daphne didn't respond. Fred pushed the gate open.

"Okay, everyone be careful when we go inside."

Once inside the gate, the group entered through the two glass double doors into the foyer of the hotel. As everyone stood in the lobby, the ceiling light above them flickered, threatening to go out permanently.

"Okay, we're in," Fred said. "Let's split up and look for clues."

"Split up?" Robbie asked narrowing his eyes.

"Why don't we stick together," Wendy suggested. "This hotel isn't that big."

"It's big enough to have two floors and it will be much faster if we split into two groups," Velma pointed out.

"Fine. Whatever," Wendy said. "So, who are me and Robbie going with?"

"Velma Daphne and I will check upstairs. You two can search with Shaggy and Scooby down here.

Fred and the girls headed for the stairs.

"So, what do we do exactly?" Wendy asked Shaggy.

"Like, Scooby and me just look for food. We only find clues on accident."

"Reah or romething rary," Scooby answered.

"Reary?" Robbie asked.

"I think he means scary," Wendy corrected.

"Reah, rary."

They walked on down the hallway. Nothing unusual stood out as they continued down a corridor of rooms.

"Are any of these rooms unlocked?" Wendy wondered. She tried one of the doors, but it didn't budge.

"This is going to be a quick search if we can't check the rooms," Robbie said. He leaned against one door, pressing an ear to the wood. "I can't hear anything. Maybe I can break down the door."

"Hey, if they don't open of their own free will, like let's not force it," Shaggy suggested.

"Man, why are you always so scared of everything, Shaggy?" Wendy asked.

"Like I'm not afraid of everything," Shaggy responded. "Just things that are scary."

"Well it sound like you guys run into a lot of creepy stuff, aren't you used to it by now?" she asked further.

"Give it up, Wendy. He's just a skinny chicken," Robbie tossed out. Shaggy didn't say anything in his defense.

"Aren't you going to say something to him?" Wendy asked.

"No. He's right," Shaggy said.

"No, he isn't!" Wendy burst out. "He just insulted you to your face and you're gonna take it?"

"Come on, Wendy. You're boyfriend knows he's a chicken," Robbie crudely teased.

"He's not my boyfriend! Shut up!" Wendy yelled as she punched Robbie in the arm.

Robbie grunted, but tried to act like the pain didn't affect him.

Shaggy went to the next door, which opened. Inside were two twin beds and a dresser, but not much else.

"Like, this is definitely not a five star hotel." He shut the door. Opening the next room down, he discovered the exact same layout. He shut the door. "Nope, nothing in there."

Meanwhile, Scooby wandered down to the end of the hallway. He put a paw on the doorknob to the last room. The door opened. On the other side was something horrifying, a white face hidden in a mass of shadows.

"Rikes!" Scooby cried out and slammed the door. He ran over to Shaggy, viciously tapping him on the shoulder.

"Like what's wrong, Scoob?" Shaggy asked. Scooby whimpered and pointed at the door where he saw the creature. "Oh boy, you want me to go over there and check it out, don't you?"

"Ruh-huh," Scooby answered. Shaggy rolled his eyes remembering what happened with the chalkboard.

"Like, I don't know why I do these things for you, Scooby Doo." Shaggy breathed in and opened the door. However, when Shaggy opened the door, nothing out of the ordinary was there." Shaggy turned to Scooby narrowing his eyes.

"Like, quit trying to scare me, Scoob." He closed the door and walked to the other side where Wendy had opened one of the doors.

"There's nothing strange in here," she said. "Just a normal room. Should I check the drawers in the dresser?"

Shaggy shrugged. "I guess so." Wendy raised a skeptical eyebrow. She thought that someone who solves mysteries all the time would be more thorough.

Scooby crept over to the door next over. Putting a paw on the doorknob, he slowly opened the door. On the other side was the same creature he just saw with a white face. The creature wore a long black cloak covering the head and body. In the dim lighting, it appeared as if the creature was disfigured and distorted.

Raggy!" he yelled. He shut the door and ran over to Shaggy, jumping into his arms. Wendy, who was looking inside one of the dresser drawers turned towards them. Scooby shook in Shaggy's arms. "Rit's the ronster!"

"Okay Scoob, I'm gonna go over there, but something better be behind that door."

Wendy walked over to Scooby. "What did you see?" she asked. Scooby's teeth chattered. Before Shaggy opened the door, the creature kicked down the door. Stretching out its long, thick arms, it growled.

"Zoinks!" Shaggy yelled as he slammed the door and ran back down the hallway towards the others. Everyone ran from the creature. They barreled into one doorway, then out another, in and out of doorways, going up and down the hallway. After all of that running, and they weren't any closer in escaping from the monster. Suddenly, Wendy stopped. "Whoa! Hold on! I'm not gonna run from this thing! After everything I faced last year?! Forget it!" She stormed up to the masked creature.

"Hey you! Quit chasing us or I'm gonna break your legs!" she yelled.

"Like, Wendy, what are you doing?" Shaggy asked nervously.

"I'm standing up to this thing! I survived Weirdmageddon! I'm not gonna to run away!"

Suddenly, the creature grabbed Wendy and threw her over its shoulder and raced into one of the rooms. "Put me down!" she screamed as the creature closed and locked the door.

"Wendy!" Robbie shouted as he pounded on the door. He shoved his shoulder into the wood multiple times. When, the door didn't budge, he turned to Shaggy.

"Come on! Help me man! We gotta stop that creep!"

"Like, I don't know if we should—" Shaggy began cowardly.

"You better help me or I'm gonna break your scrawny neck!" Robbie raged.

Shaggy did a big gulp. Even though Robbie was shorter than Shaggy, the kid probably could tear him apart.

"Okay, man," Shaggy agreed. "Come on, Scoob." All three of them rammed the door until it fell of its hinges.

However, by the time they got inside, no one was there. The window on the other side of the room was wide open. Robbie ran over and looked out.

"Did it just jump out and run off?" he asked out loud. "Wendy!" he shouted, but only the howling wind answered. In frustration, he punched the window frame. He turned to Shaggy with a grave expression. "Listen, we aren't' doing anything else until we find Wendy, got it?"

"Like, we'll find her, man," Shaggy answered a little shaken. "B-but, how about we regroup with the rest of the gang and let them know what's going on."

"Fine, whatever," Robbie grunted.

The gang regrouped in the main lobby. Fred stood with his arms crossed, furrowing his brow, while Velma and Daphne stood in awkward silence.

"Like, Fred, we found something!" Shaggy said as he, Scooby and Robbie walked over.

"Good, cause we didn't find a thing," Fred said with frustration. Then he noticed they were down a person. "Where's Wendy?"

"Like, that's what I'm trying to tell you, Fred. We saw this weird monster and it grabbed her and took off."

"What did the monster look like?" Velma asked.

"It was a stupid white faced creep in a black cloak," Robbie said hastily. "And when I find him, I'm gonna beat his face in!" Robbie pounded his fist into his hand.

"Well, usually, we set a trap to catch the monster," Fred said.

"Uh, okay. I guess that's cool," Robbie said.

"But, like, we don't know where that creep went," Shaggy said.

At that moment, the door on the opposite wall swayed.

"I wonder where that leads?" Velma asked.

"Let's find out," Fred answered.

Everyone headed towards the door. As Fred shinned his flashlight inside, he found a descending staircase.

"This must lead to the basement," he said.

"A-another b-basement," Shaggy moaned.

"Roh, no!" Scooby cried.

"Well, let's go already!" Robbie exclaimed as he pushed past the gang, continuing down the staircase.

Below the inn, the masked creature carried Wendy into a secluded area.

"I swear if you don't let me go, I'm gonna drop kick you!" she screamed at it. Wendy grabbed the creature around the neck and prepared to try and choke it out. It flipped her off its shoulders and set her on the floor, tying her hands behind her back. Then the creature walked across the room and lit two torches.

"What the hell is going on?" Wendy cried. She didn't get an answer. She hated to admit it, but the whole situation started to freak her out. She had to find a way out of there.

The gang finally made it into the basement. They only took a few steps before a bunch of torches lit all around them. Everyone stood, frozen by the sudden change of the environment.

"You couldn't just leave town, could you?" A deep, gruff voice asked. The masked figure walked through the line of torches. In the light, it appeared more human as its body was clearly seen.

"Just who are you?" Fred asked.

The creature removed its mask to reveal a burly man with red hair. Robbie recognized him right away. "Hey, you're Wendy's dad. What are you doing?"

Suddenly, more faces appeared in the torchlight. The Sheriff and Deputy, Mayor Tyler, and many other townsfolk stood in the room.

"Well, now how did you all stumble into our secret place?" Sheriff Blubs asked.

"They are some snoopy kids, that's for sure," Deputy Durland added.

A new face walked towards the gang, a plump man wearing a round straw hat and button down shirt with a floral pattern.

"Who are you?" Velma asked him in a calm manner.

"Aw now, you asked so politely, son. My name is Bud Gleeful, I'm a car salesman and a businessman."

"Okay, what is going on in this town? What's with all of this?" Daphne asked.

Lazy Susan walked up behind him. "This is our secret," she said.

"The waitress from the diner?" Velma questioned.

"So, are we going to learn this secret?" Fred pushed.

"B-be c-careful Fred," Shaggy said, quivering. "It may be one of those deals that once we know, we can never leave."

"Sure, we'll let you know," the Sheriff answered.

"Let us know what?" Daphne asked, her voice trembling a little.

Each of the townsfolk held up their right hand.

"We solemnly swear never to reveal the events of the day when gravity fell and earth became sky, the day we feared the beast with just one eye. We will never speak again of the incident known as Weirdmageddon. This day we will never look back, this is the 'Never Mind All That Act.'"

They lowered their hands. The tiny mayor stepped forward.

"Get em'!" he shouted. The gang watched in horror as the townsfolk closed in on them.


	8. Chapter 8: Rescuing 101

Chapter 8: Rescuing 101

The Mystery Inc. gang sat tied up to a pillar along with Wendy and Robbie. The townsfolk left them in the dark room with only a few torches for light. Wendy let out an aggravated groan. "I can't believe this! The whole town has gone crazy!"

"This whole Weirdmageddon thing really affected them," Fred stated.

"Trust me, it was awful," Wendy said. "There were horrible creatures roaming the town; no place was safe. Well, except for the Mystery Shack.

"Why's that?" Velma asked.

"Well, Ford knew a way to protect the shack from Bill, but it involved getting unicorn hair. So Mabel took on this quest to find a unicorn and get some of its hair." She stopped as she noticed all the looks of disbelief from the gang. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"This is just not what we're used to," Fred said.

"I know it sounds messed up," she agreed.

"So, now what do we do?" Daphne wondered out loud.

Everyone remained silent for a moment. Wendy looked down at her jean pocket. She tried to move her fingers to her cell phone, but it was out of her grasp. Her eyes went to Shaggy next to her.

"Hey, can you reach my cell phone in my pocket?" she asked him. Shaggy looked at the bulge in her pocket. He wiggled his long fingers towards the phone. They reached into her pants pocket. Suddenly, Shaggy blushed and quickly pulled his hand away.

Wendy laughed. "It's okay, man. Just grab my phone." Shaggy quickly reached in her pocket and pull out the phone.

"Like, now what?"

"Search for Dipper's name."

Robbie raised an eyebrow to her request, but didn't say anything. Shaggy punched in the first three letters of the name; the phone number popped up on her contact list.

"Okay, send him a text. Tell him where we are and that we're being held by the townsfolk."

"Like, is he going to be able to do anything?" Shaggy asked. "Isn't he just a kid?"

A small smile crossed Wendy's lips. "He can do more than you think. He'll get Mabel, Stan and Ford, and possibly Soos to come help us."

"Like, what are they going to do to help us?" Shaggy asked.

"Just wait and see," Wendy said with vigor.

Shaggy didn't quite understand, but he sent the text anyway.

In the attic of the Mystery Shack, Dipper and Mabel slept soundly in their beds. Just then, Dipper's pillow began to vibrate. He woke up and stuck his hand under the pillow to grab his phone. His eyes popped wide open when he saw Wendy's name. He pushed the button to receive the text message. He quickly read it, and then hopped out of bed. He rushed over to Mabel and tried to shake her awake.

"Mabel! Wake up!"

Mabel slowly opened her eyes to see her brother. "What?" she asked in annoyance. Dipper shoved the phone in her face. Mabel read the message and sat up.

"Wait a minute, she just sent you that?" Mabel asked.

"Yeah," Dipper answered. "Wendy needs our help!"

Dipper ran to his dresser and grabbed some clothes, quickly tossing them on.

"They're at Gravity Falls Inn. It's kind of far to walk," Mabel said. After a moment of thought, "I know. We'll go get Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford. They'll take us," Mabel said.

"Whoa! Wait, I'm not waking Grunkle Stan up. Remember the last time we tried to wake him at an indecent hour? He duct tapped us to our beds."

"Well, this is different Dipper. The Mystery Inc. gang and Wendy are being held against their will by the townspeople. Oh, and Robbie too." Mabel finally got out of bed and rubbed her eyes. "Wow! First night in Gravity Falls and we're already doing rescue missions," she said. She walked over to her closet and threw on her rainbow sweater and a matching headband.

Dipper grabbed a flashlight. "We need to get to the basement. You still have the code in your scrapbook?" Dipper asked Mabel.

"Yep," she answered. She ran over to the scrapbook on her dresser. She flipped through the pages to where she remembered storing it. However, it wasn't there. "Okay, maybe not."

"Come on Mabel, stop fooling around. We need the code," Dipper said.

Mabel quickly paged through the book again, but didn't find it. Her eyes and mouth withdrew in a look of dismay

"It's not here," she whispered.

"Well, where is it?" Dipper asked impatiently.

Suddenly, Mabel remembered Daphne and Velma coming up to their room that night and accidently bumping the book onto the floor. "No, they wouldn't— Would they?" Mabel tried to come up with a reason why they would take the sheet of paper with the code.

"So, we have no way to getting downstairs," Dipper spoke hastily. "I wish I could call them, but neither of our uncles have adopted the twenty-first century technology of the cell phone!"

"Hey, what about Soos? He might know the code. I mean, he could probably just take the vending machine door right off," Mabel suggested.

The two went down the stairs to the room their great uncle once used, but now belonged to Soos. A faint glow came out from under the door. Dipper knocked lightly on the door. No one answered. He pushed the door open to see Soos at his computer with headphones on, engrossed in a medieval role-playing game.

"Dude! Behind you! He's behind you!" he practically shouted. He clicked several times on the mouse to make his character cut down one of the enemies. "Don't worry, I got him dude!" Dipper tapped Soos' shoulder. "Ah!" he cried out. He spun around. His eyes stared at the twins for a moment, then he blinked. "Oh, hey there." He paused the game and turned on his lamp. Both Dipper and Mabel screamed when they saw Soos' bloodshot eyes from sleep deprivation.

"What are you guys doing awake?" he asked. Dipper showed Soos the text. "We need to get to the basement to get Grunkle Stan and Ford. Can you remove the front of the vending machine?"

Soos blinked a few times. "Maybe."

In the gift shop, Soos studied the vending machine for a moment.

"I can definitely remove the door," he said. He took out his trusty drill screwdriver and went to work. It took him a few moments to get the door off to reveal the passageway behind it. "Hopefully Mr. Pines won't be too upset I did that. I can easily put it back on." The three went down to the elevator. Dipper pressed the number three button that took them all the way down.

Once on the basement floor, the trio moved into the open space where a portal and its operating machine once stood. Stan and Ford lay asleep in the far corner. Dipper first ran over to Stan and gently shook him. "Hey! Grunkle Stan," he tried. His uncle snored loudly and rolled over.

"You probably want to wake up Grunkle Ford first," Mabel said.

Dipper ran over to his other uncle. He put his hand lightly on Ford's shoulder.

"Hey, Great Uncle Ford,"

Suddenly Ford's eyes popped open. His hand shot out, grabbing Dipper's throat as he jolted up.

"Touch me again and I'll snap your neck!" he shouted. Dipper in a panic tried to get his uncle to release him.

"Grunkle Ford! What are you doing?" Mabel yelled.

Ford blinked and suddenly recognized Dipper. He realized what he was doing and pulled his hand away.

"Dipper?" He let out a sigh of relief. "Oh my God! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" he uncle asked. Dipper rubbed his neck as he nodded and backed away. Suddenly Stan stirred awake.

"Huh?" He looked at the others in the room. "What are you guys doing down here?"

Dipper took a deep breath. "We have something to tell you two."

Back upstairs, everyone stood in the gift shop as Soos used a drill to nail the front of the vending machine back in place. Stan and Ford finally made it upstairs after getting ready. Stan wore a black shirt with black paints while Ford wore a similar black outfit with a matching black trench coat.

"Whoa, are we doing the whole black thing? If so, I'll go change," Mabel said.

"No, you're fine. This just happens to be the only thing I have that's clean right now," Ford answered.

"And I like wearing black on rescue missions, especially when I have to break into a building." said Stan. "Don't ask."

Stan put on his brass knuckles while Ford checked his gun he's had since being in the other dimension. He was really hesitant to shoot a person with it because the beams it shot caused three times more damage than regular bullets.

"So, the whole town is keeping anyone prisoner who discovers their cult?" Stan asked.

"I can't believe how people in this town behave," Ford said.

"Well, let's go over there and knock some sense into those people," Stan said. Soos walked over. "Don't worry, Mr. Pines, the vending machine is back to the original way it was. Now I can come help you guys."

"Soos, you need to get some sleep. You look like you've been smoking a bunch of crack." Stan paused for a moment. "You're not smoking crack are you?"

Soos shook his head. "No, Mr. Pines, I would never do such a thing."

"No, Grunkle Stan, he's just been up most of the night playing video games," Dipper assured his uncle.

Soos reluctantly went to sleep. Everyone else went to the car. Ford went to the driver's side.

"Hey what are you doing? I'm driving!" Stan yelled.

"The hell you are! Not with those cataracts of yours!" Ford yelled back.

"Hey, we don't have time!" Dipper yelled. "Grunkle Stan just let Ford drive, okay?" Stan squint his eyes warningly at Dipper.

"Please, Grunkle Stan," Mabel tried. Stan sighed.

"Fine," he said and walked to the passenger side.

Ten minutes later, they arrived at the inn. Everyone sat in the car and stared at the dark, foreboding building.

"Okay, kids, you be careful. Stay behind us," Ford advised.

"Don't worry, I've still got that crossbow you gave me," Mabel said as she took it out from under her sweater.

"How long have you had that there?" Dipper asked.

"I'll never tell," she said.

"Wait, I don't have a weapon," Dipper said.

"Really Dipper? How long have you been in this family? You know how we work by now," Mabel said.

"It's fine. You two shouldn't fight anyway," Ford said. "Just let us handle everything, okay?"

Inside the hotel, Stan and Ford surveyed the area. The flickering light above them suddenly went out, leaving the family in total darkness. Dipper took out a flashlight.

"At least I have this," he said.

"Great, now we need to find the basement, right?" Ford asked.

Dipper reread the text from Wendy. "That's right," he said, pointing the flashlight towards the far wall. The beam of light illuminated a closed door. He walked over, opening the door to reveal a descending staircase.

"Hey! I found it!" Dipper yelled to the others.

Everyone looked down the dark stairwell. "Good work, Dipper," Ford complimented. Dipper started down the stairs.

"Just don't fall down the stairs," Stan warned him.

Dipper let out a tiny laugh. "Yeah, like I'd do that." Just as he said that, he missed one of the steps and began to stumble forward. Ford suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Be careful," he said sternly. Dipper turned away sheepishly and nodded.

At the bottom of the stairs, the family found the lit torches in the open room.

"I didn't expect this," Ford said. "Isn't this a fire hazard?"

"God, this town is full of idiots!" Stan exclaimed. "Idiots who always gave me their money, but idiots nonetheless."

They continued into the next hallway where they found a few doors. Dipper opened one, revealing a storage closet. Then another one was the boiler room. He shined the flashlight on the switchboard. Opening the tiny door, he discovered that the main power was switched off.

Ford looked at the panel curiously. "Okay," he said. "Why would the power get switched off after we got inside the building—unless—"

"They know we're here?" Dipper asked.

"They could be just waiting in the darkness for us," Stan said.

"Well, we're ready for them, right?" Mabel tried to be cheerful.

Everyone nodded. Continuing on, the Pines family walked down the hallway to one final door. Everyone paused. Ford nodded to Dipper to open to the door. As he did, Dipper felt a knot in his stomach.

On the other side of the door was a large open space. Dipper shined the light across the room where he saw more torches along with the captive tied to the pillar. The townspeople stood around them watching as Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland approached Wendy and Shaggy with their tazers.

"No!" Dipper cried out. He ran out into the room before fully thinking about the repercussion of his actions. Wendy turned towards Dipper's scream. Her lips curved up into a smile as she saw the Pines family running over.

"You guys are gonna get it now!" she yelled at townspeople.

They stopped as the townsfolk blocked their path.

"What the hell are all of you doing?" Ford demanded.

"Upholding the Act that our faithful mayor placed after that demonic Dorito chip turned this town into a living nightmare!" Bud shouted.

"Hey, wait a minute," Lazy Susan began. "Maybe our town heroes want a turn at shocking the lawbreakers."

Blubs walked over to Stan and held out the tazer. "Here you go, sir."

Stan's eyes brightened. He couldn't pass up an opportunity to taze someone. "Oh, don't mind if I do—"

"Stanley!" Ford shouted.

"Oh, right," Stan said, realizing why they came there in the first place. "Okay, look. I think everyone is still freaked out about the whole 'incident' last year. Why don't we all just relax and put away the tazers."

"Why are you all doing this? It's just messed up," Dipper said.

"This is all because of what happened last year?" Mabel asked.

"What we're we supposed to do?" Lazy Susan wondered. "That floating triangle just showed up and—" she couldn't finish her sentence.

"We lost all of our money," Mrs. Northwest said. The middle aged blonde woman sobbed.

"And what that monster did to my face!" Mr. Northwest shouted. He put his hand over his mouth and gagged as if he was about to throw up.

"I still have nightmares," another member of the town spoke.

"Me too," said another.

"I almost starved," Bud Gleeful said as he joined the others.

"As Mayor, I was powerless," Mayor Tyler said.

A normal looking man in a dress shirt and pants walked out from the crowd. "Tad Strange is still scarred from the horrific event," he said in a strange cheerful manner.

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Okay, look, I'm sorry," Ford said. "Weirdmageddon was my fault. But we all survived it. You have to realize that you've become stronger because you're still alive."

"Yeah, now, how about we untie our friends," Dipper said. The townspeople looked at each other, unsure of how to respond.

"It's not necessary for anyone to untie me. I'm almost free," Fred said. He continued maneuvering his hands. Stan walked over to him. Grabbing a pocketknife, he started cutting the ropes.

"Actually, it looks like you tangled yourself up even more," he told Fred. Stan freed him, then moved over to free Daphne. "There you go, honey. And feel free to give me a kiss. I won't mind." Daphne narrowed her eyes in disgust. Ford smacked Stan in the back of the head. "Stay focused!"

"Hey, watch it!" Stan yelled back. He moved onto Velma, Shaggy and Scooby. "Yesh! I have to save your dog too Hippie?" he questioned Shaggy. "How come he just didn't bite all of them?"

"Like Scoob only bites hamburgers and other delicious food," Shaggy said.

"Reah, relicious rood!" Scooby repeated.

Finally, Stan cut Robbie free. "Geez! Finally! Taking forever old man."

Stan shoved the knife in Robbie's face. "You want me to tie you back up?" he threatened. Robbie sheepishly shook his head.

"Okay, everyone is safe," Ford said. "Let's get out of here."

Suddenly, Tad grabbed Ford and shoved him onto the ground.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" Ford yelled.

"You don't get it!" Tad suddenly yelled angrily. Everyone stared at him. "I was always the happy guy in town. Now, I can't give genuine smiles anymore. I don't even know what my purpose is!"

"Get the hell off me!" Ford yelled. Stan grabbed Tad and threw him into the wall. Tad sat still for a moment, struggling to breathe.

"Listen, our family was tormented by Bill all last summer," Dipper said to Tad. "I was pulled out of my body by him!"

"Don't mention his name!" Tad screamed. Suddenly he drew a pistol from his jacket, aiming it at the other townsfolk. "No one mentions that name anymore!"

"Are you crazy!" Fred shouted.

"This is just silly," Daphne added. Tad switched his aim to them.

"Oh, I'm the one that's crazy and silly? I'm the only one in this town that's normal!"

"Not right now, you aren't," Stan said. "You're messed up in the head."

Tad changed his aim to Stan. "Oh really? Coming from the man who tricks everyone to pay to see his shame of an attraction site. I otta shoot you just for being a con artist."

Ford drew his gun from its holster and aimed at Tad. "Drop the gun now!"

"Shut up!" Tad yelled. He took a shot. However, his aim was way off and the bullet missed Stan by a few feet. It still made him jump.

"You son of a bitch!" Stan yelled. He ran at Tad, tackling him to the ground. "You want a piece of me?" he punched the skinny man. Tad kept fighting with blood dripping from his nose. Stan was actually struggling to take to gun away from Tad. Ford moved in on the two; he pointed the gun at Tad. "Stop this, or I will shoot!"

"Just forget it Ford, he's lost his mind! Just shoot him!" Stan yelled. Ford hesitated. "Will you just shoot this bastard?" Stan kept yelling. Ford was about to pull the trigger when the Sheriff and Deputy pushed him to the ground. Blubs slapped handcuffs on him.

"Why are you two helping this madman?" Ford questioned.

The Sheriff kept his weight on Ford, holding him to the ground. "We're trying to keep some order here! Don't need two crazy guys with guns shootin' everyone!" Blubs answered.

Shaggy and Scooby watched in horror, afraid to move from their spot by the wall. Wendy ran over to them.

"I'm going to try to get the gun away from him," she said.

"Like, I don't think that's a good idea," Shaggy said.

"Well, someone's gotta do something! This is insane!" she yelled. Shaggy looked at her, then at Tad. He now had the gun pointed at Stan's face and he was about to pulled the trigger.

Suddenly, Mabel fired her cross bow sending an arrow into Tad's arm. He cried out. His aim faltered. Shaggy ran at him. He grabbed the barrel of the gun and ripped it out of Tad's hands.

"You stupid kid!" Tad yelled. He somehow pushed Stan off of him and got to his feet. Holding his wounded arm, he ran at Shaggy, pushing him against the wall. "Like, someone help!" Scooby, seeing his pal in trouble tackled the man to the ground. Stan rushed over and punched Tad across the face, knocking him out.

Everyone in the room stared wide-eyed as Stan got off Tad. He sat there, breathing heavily.

"Well, I would say, 'this wraps up the mystery,'" Fred began. "But I have no idea what all of 'this' was."

"Well, I guess we'll take it from here," Blubs responded.

Ford still lay on his stomach. "Hey, how about taking these things off me," he said.

Durland took the cuffs off of Ford. "Sorry about that. Things were just getting too crazy."

"Yeah, sure," Ford responded hastily.

The townsfolk exited the building after the whole event. The Sheriff and Deputy had Tad in custody.

"I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those meddling kids and the Pine's family!" Tad shouted. He looked at all of them. "And that dog too!"

"Alright, just keep it movin," Blubs said, pushing Tad into the police car.

"Great, someone else who made us their sworn enemies," Stan said. "How many is that now?"

"I think I lost count," Mabel responded.

As everyone stood outside the hotel, Wendy walked over to Shaggy.

"Wow! That was awesome, man," she said. "See, I knew you could be brave."

"Like, yeah, I actually feel pretty good," Shaggy said.

That's what being a hero is all about," Wendy responded.

"Like, me? A hero?" He thought about it.

The rest of Mystery Inc. walked over. "Well, I guess that's it," Fred said. "This was the strangest mystery we've ever encountered."

"Maybe now we can stay here in the hotel," Daphne said.

"What? Hotel?" Stan questioned as he walked over. "You kids are staying at the Mystery Shack. I will even let you stay for free tonight."

"Really?" Fred asked. "What's the catch?"

"The catch is that you might have to sleep with Soos in his room because I seriously don't have any more rooms to rent."

The kids all laughed.

"What? I'm being serious here."

Later, everyone stood in the gift shop at the Mystery Shack.

"Boy, I'm tired," Fred stated.

"Me too," Daphne agreed. "That was quite an adventure."

Dipper and Mabel walked up to the group. "So, uh, I wondered if any of you had a tiny piece of paper with some numbers and letters on it?" she asked.

Daphne and Velma exchanged glances. Velma took the piece of paper with the code for the vending machine and gave it to Mabel.

"Sorry," Velma said. "We were just desperate for some answers."

"If it had been anyone else, I would have been pissed," Dipper said. "But, I understand what you guys do."

Ford stood away from everyone, studying the Mystery Inc. gang for a moment. Finally he walked over. "Listen, I—well, the whole reason I wanted you guys to leave was because—" he let out a long sigh. "That recording you have. I know who the whispering voice belongs to. Can you come with me?" Ford walked over to the vending machine and input the code. He took the gang to the elevator and down to the second floor. Inside his lab, he turned on the lights. In the far corner was a tarp covering a wall. "When you played the recording backwards, I recognized it as an ancient chant where a creature like Bill can reincarnate himself," Ford explained. He put his hands on the tarp. "Prepare yourself. I'm about to show you Bill." He pulled off the tarp revealing the triangular being with top hat and bow tie. The members of Mystery Inc. took one look at Bill and started to laugh. Ford raised an eyebrow at their response.

"Uh, this really isn't something you laugh at," he said, confused and somewhat annoyed.

"Sorry, it's just that, how are we supposed to take that seriously?" Fred asked.

"Yeah, it's a triangle with one eye, top hat and a tie? How is that not hilarious?" Velma asked.

"I suppose at first glance he doesn't look like much, but I can assure you that Bill is the most deadliest creature I've ever encountered. He's also very cunning. When he gained his physical form in our world, he could do anything."

"So, you're afraid he can come back?" Daphne asked.

Ford pulled out a book similar to the journals he had written. On the front was a sideways eight, a sign that meant infinity.

"After the old journals were destroyed, I wrote down everything I remembered from them in this. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember a lot of stuff." He looked down at Scooby as if deeply studying him. "Was your dog born with the ability to talk?" Fred and the girls turned to Shaggy.

"Like I—I remember Scooby started talking when I did. I think he was mimicking me."

"Interesting." Ford opened up the new journal and grabbed a pen from his pocket. "Stanley and I have been hunting various anomalies since last September. There was an anomaly that we tracked all the way back to Gravity Falls." He looked down and smiled at Scooby. "I believe this anomaly is you, Scooby."

"Roo? Rme?" Scooby pointed at himself.

"Scooby?" Shaggy asked. "Like I thought these weird anomal-whatevers were all monsters."

"An anomaly is anything strange or unnatural. You have a talking dog." Ford showed his hands with six fingers. "I'm an anomaly too, because of my genetic mutation," he explained. "With your permission, I'd like to study Scooby and find out why he's different than other dogs."

"You want to study Scooby?" Fred questioned.

"It's honestly up to Scooby himself," Velma said.

"Like what do you think, Scoob?" Shaggy asked.

"Reah, Ri ress ro," he answered.


	9. Chapter 9: Erasing the Skeptcism

Chapter 9: Erasing the Skepticism

The next morning, the Mystery Inc. gang awoke still feeling pretty fatigued from everything that happened the previous night. Fred, Shaggy and Scooby dragged themselves down the hallway towards the living room. Velma sat on the couch with Dipper who read more from his new journal while Daphne sat across from Mabel getting a manicure.

"I have to say that I never thought anyone would ever convince me that supernatural creatures exist, but now I'm starting to wonder," Velma said.

"I wish I could just show you one for real," Dipper responded.

Mabel continued painting Daphne's nails. "You have the shiniest nails," Mabel told her.

"Thanks, I take care of them regularly," Daphne responded.

Stan strolled into the living room. His eyes grew wide, then softened.

"Oh, that's right. I forgot I told you kids that you could stay here," he said. "We got coffee. It's actually good because Soos made it today." At that moment Soos walked by, wearing the Mr. Mystery getup.

"Aw, thanks Mr. Pines," he gushed. He waved at Fred and Shaggy. "Hey roomies!" He continued into the shop. Stan sat in his chair. Dipper went on and on about his adventures from last summer as Mabel finally finished Daphne's nails.

"Okay, as soon as they dry, I can put on the stickers," she said.

"Stickers? I've never put stickers on my nails before," Daphne said, believing that was kind of strange. Mabel took out her box of various stickers.

"Me and my friends do it all the time! I got glitter stickers, puffy stickers, crazy design stickers—"

"I like those kitty ones," Daphne said.

"Ooh! Yeah, those are special ones."

"You know, I was thinking I should do a Tarot card reading for you, Mabel."

Mabel looked up and smiled. "You can do those?"

"Yeah, I've taken a class in it. We can do it later on tonight."

"So, my Grunkle Ford said he's studying your dog now?" Mabel asked.

Daphne opened her mouth to speak, but wasn't quite sure what to say. "Well—" she began.

"Scooby said he didn't mind," Shaggy said.

"It is kind of strange," Fred admitted. "What exactly is he going to find out? We already know that Scooby is an unusual dog."

"Knowing my brother, he'll just write a bunch of notes and he'll make all his so called discovers sound so smart," Stan said in sarcasm.

Velma stood up. "I need to talk to him about something. Do you know where he is?"

"Probably down in his lab. What are you going to talk to him about?"

"See, I'm someone who needs to know all the facts. Usually, so called supernatural phenomenon are all proven to be proven obsolete," Velma said.

"What?" Stan asked, not understanding a word Velma just said.

"She's basically saying that supernatural creatures don't exist," Dipper translated.

Stan waved his hand. "Geez, you even talk like my brother," he said to Velma. "The two of you should go talk nerd stuff with each other."

"Actually I do want to talk to him about these anomalies he studies," she replied.

"Have fun with that. He'll talk forever about that stuff. Especially everything he's found in this town."

"Quite honestly, we haven't seen anything that out of the ordinary here," Fred said.

"That's because a lot of the anomalies have either moved on or are pretty well hidden," Dipper said. "A lot of anomalies don't come out into the open where people can see them."

"Well, me and Ford have been hunting those creatures all year. I just want a break right now," Stan said leaning back in his chair.

"Come on, Velma, I'll go with you," Dipper said leading her towards the shop.

They entered the store, which was completely empty before business hours. Soos arranged various merchandise on the shelves.

"Soos, we're going downstairs. I'll text you when we're coming back up so you can tell us if the coast is clear, okay?"

"Okay Dipper," he answered without looking up. Dipper turned to Velma. "He really loves this shop so much, I think more than my Grunkle did."

"I still don't get why people come here," Velma said.

"I think some are just curious, others are just stupid," Dipper responded. He input the code into the vending machine. They entered the elevator and went down to the second floor.

Down on the second floor of the basement, Scooby sat at a small table across from Ford. "Okay, so you eat normal people food, including chocolate, which is a substance that normally kills dogs. However, you remain unharmed." Ford continued writing. "Do you see a people doctor or do you go to the vet?"

"RI ro roo rhe ret."

"Ret?" Ford asked.

"Uh-uh. The Rvet."

"So, that weird accent you have, what's the deal with that?"

Scooby stared at Ford for a moment. "Ri ron't row."

"Hmm. It almost like your barking, but you're also speaking at the same time." Ford wrote some more.

Dipper and Velma entered through the door. Dipper watched his great uncle write for a moment before speaking.

"Hey Great Uncle Ford," he began. Ford looked up, and then raised an eyebrow to his grand nephew's presence.

"Hey there, something I can help you with?" he asked.

"You've met Velma, right?" Dipper asked his uncle.

Ford switched his glance to the girl. "Uh, yeah, you're one of Scooby's owners or something?"

"Actually, if it were appropriate to name Scooby's owner, that would be Shaggy. However, we really don't look at Scooby as just an animal. He's a member of our team. He's our friend," she explained.

"Raw!" Scooby gushed.

"I can see why. He has the intelligence of a human. I just don't know why he's different." Ford looked over his notes. "I guess he's like every other anomaly out there. It's just the way he is."

"So, what do you do with all this research?" Velma wondered.

"I studied a lot of different subjects while in school and my thesis on Quantum Physics earned me a grant so I could research anything I wanted. I chose anomalies, well because—" He showed his hand.

"So, everyone in this town has seen something strange and out of the ordinary?"

Ford let out a short laugh. "Well, with what happened last year, it's pretty safe to assume that."

"She's skeptical, Uncle Ford," Dipper tossed out. "She doesn't believe in the supernatural."

"Well, I can't blame a person being skeptical. I was too at first, but I've found more than enough weirdness in this town as solid proof."

"I just want to see one of these anomalies," Velma explained. "Like the gnomes that your grandnephew wrote about."

"Well, you have an anomaly right here," he gestured to Scooby.

"But, Scooby is different," Velma insisted.

Ford raised an eyebrow. "How? He's no different than any other unnatural phenomenon out there."

"Just because Scooby is unusual, doesn't mean he's a supernatural creature," Velma pointed out.

"I'm having a hard time understanding how you are alright with a talking dog, but don't believe in strange and unnatural occurrences." He shrugged. "Well, no one can force you to believe, you need to find out the truth on your own."

"So, how long do you plan on studying Scooby?"

"I'm not sure. About as long as it takes for me to gather the needed information. How much longer are you staying here?"

"Well, if there's no mystery to solve, we don't have to be here any longer," Velma said.

"But there's tons of mysteries here!" Dipper spoke with excitement.

"Actually, the anomalies here are pretty much the nice ones just trying to live in their own habitat. I haven't seen any anomalies that are a threat since we've come back," Ford explained. "However—" His mind went to the recorded whispering. "I just want to make sure of something. You still have that recording, right?"

"Recording? Oh, the whispering Shaggy recorded. Yeah, he probably still does."

"I'm going to need to listen to it again."

Velma nodded. "Sure. I'll get it from him."

Dipper and Velma returned upstairs. No one was inside the shop so it was safe to come out. Outside, Soos was busy with a tour. He had new instructions on including the Mystery Machine.

"This here is our newest attraction, the Mystery Machine," Soos announced to the crowd. "A lot of mysteries take place in this van as it finds every scary place from one side of the country to the other. It may be haunted. Who knows?" People took pictures of the van. As Dipper and Velma watched, the rest of the gang and Mabel joined them.

"Hey! I wasn't aware people were going to take pictures of my van," Fred said sourly.

"Well, you agreed to it, Fred," Daphne reminded him.

At that moment, Velma turned to Shaggy.

"Hey, would you mind if Ford listened to that recording of the whispering again?"

"Like, he can listen to it all he wants. I don't ever want to hear it again." He handed her the tape recorder.

"What's he trying to do?" Daphne asked.

"He's probably trying to figure out what it means," Mabel said.

"Or at least figure out the person or thing whispering," Dipper added.

"Did you have to say 'thing,'" Shaggy asked anxiously.

"But, he already told us," Velma said. "He showed us that picture of the triangle demon or whatever."

"Wait! What?" Dipper cried out.

"Wait a minute," Mabel voice trembled. "That sounds like—"

"No way," Dipper interrupted, trying to sound cheerful. "That demonic triangle is gone. Grunkle Ford erased him."

"Yeah," Mabel laughed nervously. "Hey, looks like Soos is done with the tour, let's go see how he's doing."

"Right behind you!" Dipper said as the two raced off.

"I think mentioning that weird triangle being upset the kids," Daphne said. "Let's not mention it again."

Later that night, Ford sat in his study with the tape recorder in hand. He listened to the shrill voice over and over.

"There has to be some hint in the words of when and where he will reincarnate," he said to himself. As he lay back in his chair, listening, his eyes slowly began to close.

Inside Ford's mind were a bunch of books, paper and equations floating around in an endless void. He didn't pay any attention to them, however as he climbed a long staircase made of his own research notes. At the top of the stairs was a door where bright light seeped out from underneath it. Ford opened the door to see some place familiar and horrifying at the same time. He stood on the stone floor of the floating pyramid. He noticed he wore his brother's suit and fez. In front of him was his brother in his sweater and beige trench coat; his eyes closed. Ford had the memory eraser gun in his hand. He typed in his brother's name. He aimed at Stan head, closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

In the next moment, everything disappeared and Ford stood in a black void again. As he tried to wrap his mind around the truth of what really happened to his brother.

 _I erased his memory. Why did it come back so easily?_

He thought about Mabel using her scrapbook to help Stan remember his life, but it shouldn't have worked. Besides, there were only pictures of him with the kids last summer. What about the memories before then? What about his childhood memories? It was too easy... Then he heard a familiar voice speak; his high pitch tone echoed all around him.

 _"I never left Six Fingers. I'm still inside Stanley's mind. Waiting to be reborn."_ The voice grew deeper and more demonic. _"And when I'm fully reborn, you will regret tricking me!"_

Suddenly, Ford woke up. Sitting up, he felt his hands burning. He looked down at them. His eyes widened in horror as he saw ancient symbols covering them. As he stared, he realized they were fading away, as if only an illusion. However, he saw these symbols multiple times before in his dreams.


	10. Chapter 10: Rebirth

Chapter 10: Rebirth

It was the middle of the night when Scooby awoke suddenly. His stomach growled and ached. He was having a hunger attack. He sat up in his sleeping bag. Turning to Shaggy in the sleeping bag next to him, he gently tapped his buddy on the shoulder.

"Raggy?" Shaggy's eyes fluttered open.

"Hey Scoob, what is it?"

"Ri'm rungry."

"You know what? Me too," Shaggy responded with added enthusiasm.

The two crept out of the room and down the stairs towards the kitchen. They turned on the kitchen light and opened the fridge to find the left over chicken legs

Soos made for dinner.

"Like, how about a light snack," Shaggy said.

"Reah!" Scooby agreed.

Ford entered the shop from the passageway through the vending machine. After that dream, he couldn't fall back asleep. He rubbed his eyes, trying to make sense of why he even had that dream. Why after almost a whole year? The recording of the whispering was enough to put him on edge. He's had these types of dreams before and he knew they meant something. They were never to be taken lightly.

Entering the house, he noticed the light on in the kitchen right away. He walked into the kitchen to see Shaggy and Scooby chowing down on the left over chicken legs, some sandwiches, and potato salad. Ford blinked a few times as he never saw anyone eat so much food so fast. He hadn't been around for dinner because he was busy with his research.

"Wow! Maybe I should study how a boy and dog can consume large quantities of food without getting sick or massive heartburn," he said. Shaggy and Scooby jumped at the sound of his voice as they turned towards him.

"Like, did you get a munchy attack too?" Shaggy asked.

"No. I just couldn't sleep," Ford admitted.

"Maybe you'd feel better having a bite to eat," Shaggy suggested. Ford looked at the food and realized he barely ate anything all day. It was so easy for him to forget to eat when he was working so hard.

"Sure. I probably should eat," he said. He picked up a chicken leg and took a bite.

Suddenly, the door from the shop leading into the house opened and closed. The three of then turned as Stan walked into the kitchen.

"Hey, if you and your dog eat all my food, I'm going to have to charge you again," Stan said to Shaggy.

Ford turned to his brother to point out his flawed reasoning.

"First of all Stanley, this is the food Soos and his grandma bought. Second, it will all go to waste anyway if no one eats it.

"I was gonna eat it. Some time," Stan insisted.

"What are you doing up, anyway?" Ford asked him.

"I don't know," he said. Then a bit quieter. "It kind of feels strange in the basement by myself. I feel like someone is watching me."

Shaggy and Scooby started shivering. "Like, don't say that," Shaggy moaned.

"I'm sure it's all in your head, Stanley," Ford assured him.

"Whatever. Are you coming down or not?"

"You're asking me to come sleep with you?" Ford teased.

"Hey! Shut it! That's not what I meant!"

Ford laughed. "Okay, I'll be there in a moment.

Stan shook his head. "Geez, you're actually loosening up and joking around. When did you start acting like me?"

"I'm not acting like you." He paused for a moment. "My jokes are much funnier than yours." By now Shaggy and Scooby were snickering at them.

Stan finally got up and headed back down the hallway.

"Okay, I'm going to sleep. Could you guys possibly clean all of this up?" Ford asked.

"Like, we'll lick the table clean, sir," Shaggy said. Ford raised an eyebrow, and then laughed lightly. He left the room.

As Ford entered the shop, he saw Stan standing in the shadows by the counter with his head down. It appeared very unsettling. Ford approached his brother, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, what's going on with you? Are you alright?"

Suddenly, Stan lifted his head, still turned away. "I'm—fine," he answered.

"Come on, let's go get some sleep," Ford said. They turned towards the vending machine.

Ford finally found sleep and didn't have any other horrifying dreams. He slept soundly until... Suddenly, he was jerked awake. He couldn't breathe. Something was suffocating him. His eyes popped open to see Stan above him. His hands were around his throat, choking him. In a fit of panic, Ford threw a full punch into Stan's face, knocking him back, loosening his grip from around Ford's neck. Stan sat on the floor with his head in his hands. Ford coughed.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ford yelled. Then something occurred to him. The dream. He grabbed a nearby flashlight and shinned it directly into Stan's eyes. The pupils appeared normal. Stan covered his face.

"Ah! What the hell?" he cried out.

"Really? You're going to yell at me?" Ford asked angrily. "What's going on with you? You just tried to choke me!"

Stan stared wide-eyed at his brother. "I tried to do what?" Suddenly he grunted as he held his head.

"Stanley?" Now Ford was getting worried. Suddenly, a dark chuckle erupted from his brother. "Did you really think I was gone, Six Fingers?" Ford's eyes grew wide. He grabbed his gun and aimed it at Stan. Stan turned and Ford could see the yellow eyes with black slits. He shook his head as he got to his feet.

"No—I'm dreaming— You can't be here!" Ford held the gun out, keeping the aim at Stan's head.

"Really?" The voice still sounded like his brother, which was even creepier. "You would actually shoot your own brother?" Ford realized that would be an insane move. Plus, he had to make sure he wasn't going crazy. All at once, he bolted for the elevator. He ran through the door. Turning back, he saw his now possessed twin walk towards him as the elevator door closed.

Shaggy and Scooby were about done with their midnight snack, as chicken bones were the only left on their plates.

"Well Scoob, I guess we've cleared out a bunch of food. We should leave some for the others." At this point, there was only a jar of olives and salad dressing left in the fridge. Looking at the mess, Shaggy recalled Ford asking them to clean up.

"Well, we did promise to make sure the table was spotless." The two cleared the plates off the table. Scooby literally began licking the table clean. Suddenly Ford ran into the room with panic plastered on his face. Some of it subsided as he eyed Scooby for a moment.

"I didn't think you meant that to be literal," he said. Then, remembered the danger following him. "Okay, I need for you guys to go back to your room."

"Huh?" Shaggy scratched his head.

"Oh Fordsy!" he heard his brother's voice behind him.

To Shaggy and Scooby, they didn't see the problem with Stan's appearance.

"Like, Mr. Pines, hi sir. We're just cleaning up," Shaggy said cheerfully.

Ford drew his gun and aimed at Stan. "Zoiks! W-what's going on?"

"Stay back!" Ford yelled to Shaggy and Scooby. "Get under the table!"

The two of them didn't argue as they dove under the kitchen table. Ford stared at his brother, now realizing that it wasn't Stan anymore. He was now looking at Bill.

"Come on Fordsy, go ahead and shoot me," the demon challenged.

Ford aimed the gun at his brother's left leg and pulled the trigger sending an energy beam into it. His body lost balance and fell to the floor.

"I can't move this stupid thing," he cried out.

Ford studied his brother for a moment. "How about you start explaining. What the hell are you planning to do with my brother's body?" Ford asked hastily.

From inside Stan erupted a shrill laugh; the one Ford would always recognize.

"Well, this is the host I ended up going into, duh!"

"But, I erased you," Ford said coldly. "There's no way you should—"

Shaggy and Scooby huddled together underneath the table.

"Like, this isn't good Scooby," Shaggy whispered.

Scooby responded with a small whimper.

"Oh, that's right. You Pines twins tricked me and then tried to erase me," Bill said. He recalled being in Stan's mind as the blue flames engulfed him. He looked at Ford, using his brother's mouth to form an eerie wide, toothy grin. He raised his hand, lifting Ford off the ground. Ford cried out, as he didn't expect Bill could do this in his current state. With a quick hand jerk, he tossed Ford hard into the wall. Ford lay on the cold floor, coughing and gasping for air. "That was really stupid, Ford! You should have just let me into your mind. Now you and your entire family are going to die!"

Suddenly a bunch of footsteps ran towards the kitchen. Fred and Soos looked inside the kitchen.

"What's going on?" Fred asked.

Soos watched as Stan grabbed Ford and held him against the wall. Since he didn't know what was really going on, he believed Stan and Ford were having a brotherly quarrel.

"Guys! Don't fight. Please—" Soos ran towards the two brothers.

"Soos! Stay back!" Ford warned. "It's not Stan!" Soos stopped, his face contorted with confusion. Stan's body turned around. Both Soos and Fred saw the yellow eyes; they both backed up. Bill used Stan's free hand to wave, sending the two back into the wall. They lay there motionless for a moment.

"How are you doing that?" Ford demanded.

"Oh, the whole telekinesis thing?" Bill asked innocently. "I think one of those anomalies you found in the Artic had that ability. I just absorbed their power."

Ford's eyes widened. "Since when can you—"

"—Absorb powers of other creatures? I guess its one of the abilities I gained after invoking the ancients. Who knew? Now, where are your precious niece and nephew? I wanna say hi."

Ford's eyes grew dark. "If you go anywhere near them, I'll make you you'll regret it!"

"Oh okay. I'll head your little threat," Bill spoke sarcastically. He tossed Ford to the floor and walked into the hallway towards the stairs.

Bill used Stan's body to walk all the way upstairs. He still felt the tingling from the shot in the leg, but it was wearing off rather quickly. He approached the door into the attic.

"Hey kids! You're uncle wants to come have a late night chat with you!" he spoke through Stan. He opened the door to see Dipper and Mabel fast asleep. "Aw! How cute!" He slowly crept over, standing between the beds. He let out a sigh, and then raised his hands upward. The two twins were lifted off their beds, hanging in mid-air. As they hung there, their eyes slowly opened.

"W-what? What's happening?" Dipper yelled. Mabel looked down at who she believed was her Grunkle.

"Whoa! Grunkle Stan! We somehow learned how to levitate!" she said joyously.

"Uh, Mabel, I don't think that's what going on here!" Dipper yelled to her.

"Oh, trust me, Sweetie," Stan's voice jested. "You're not talented enough to do this!" He dropped his hands to his sides and both twins came crashing down on their beds. Dipper switched on the lamp on their nightstand. The kids looked into the eyes of their uncle to see the yellow irises and black slits. Both of them cried out.

"Y-you're not our Grunkle!" Mabel screamed.

"No duh, Shooting Star!" Bill's shrill voice came out. Dipper and Mabel gasped. Dipper grabbed a bat by the side of his bed and held it, ready to strike.

"How the hell are you inside our uncle?" he yelled furiously.

"Geez! You Pines family have short-term memories. Your uncles switched places and I ended up going in Stan's mind instead of Ford's."

Dipper smirked. "Oh, so you forgot how to count fingers, huh?"

"Shut up, Pine Tree!" Bill raised Stan's hand lifting Dipper up by the throat this time. Dipper dropped the bat and grasped his neck as he choked.

"Stop it!" Mabel yelled. She grabbed the bat and swung at her uncle's knees. His body toppled over. Dipper fell back onto his bed gasping for air. Suddenly, Mabel felt bad because she realized she may have hurt Stan more than she meant. At least Dipper could breathe again.

The twins ran for the door. As they were just about to reach it, the door swung open and Ford rushed inside with Soos and the Mystery Inc. gang behind them. Ford saw Stan kneeling on the ground, grunting in pain.

"Stupid old man and his bad knees!" Bill fumed. Ford aimed the gun at his chest. He knew he had to take the shot, but he couldn't make his finger move.

"Wait Grunkle Ford, don't shoot him," Mabel pleaded. "Let's just knock him out." Suddenly, Bill used Stan to make a force strong enough to pull the gun from Ford's hand. Then, the gun was disassembled right in front of his eyes.

"Whoops, looks like your only threat is gone, Fordsy. Not that it was much of one." Stan's body stood up, his eyes looked at the people in the room until they spotted Scooby. "Let's see, step one, find all the anomalies and absorb their energy." Bill used Stan's hand, holding it out as it glowed in blue flames. The force pulled Scooby right to him.

"Relp!" Scooby yelled.

"Oh no! W-what are you doing to my best pal?" Shaggy stuttered.

Scooby floated in the air as his energy seeped into Stan's body. It happened in a matter of moments, then Scooby was dropped onto the ground.

"Now, step two," Bill continued. "Find my stone body and be reborn!" He used Stan's body and ran to the triangular window. He pushed open the glass pane and jumped out. Everyone gasped as they ran towards the window. Somehow, Stan landed on the ground unharmed. He continued running towards the woods.

Shaggy knelt down next to Scooby. "S-scooby, speak to me," he tried. Scooby opened his eyes and stared warmly at Shaggy. He opened his mouth and then...

"Ruff! Ruff!" Scooby barked.

"Oh, you're okay," Shaggy said. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

Scooby barked again. "Ruff! Ruff!"

"Aren't you going to say anything else?" Scooby cocked his head. Ford knelt down by the dog. He looked into the mutt's eyes. They appeared different. Downstairs in his lab, he felt like he was speaking to another intelligent human being, but right now, he only saw the eyes of a dog.

"Something's changed," Ford said.

"What's going on with Scooby?" Velma asked.

"Yeah, its not like we've never heard Scooby bark, but after an event like that, he would be saying something," Fred noted.

"Yeah, like how scared he is or how hungry he is," Daphne added.

"Scooby, are you scared?" Shaggy asked. Scooby barked. "Hungry?" Shaggy asked further. Scooby barked again.

Ford blinked a few times then he nodded, finally understanding what happened.

"Scooby can't talk," he said. "He lost the ability." Everyone in the room stared wide-eyed for a moment.

"How can my pal just lose his ability to speak?" Shaggy asked.

"Wait a minute," Velma began. "It's because of what Bill just did to him, right?"

Ford nodded. "I think so. He said he's been absorbing powers from different anomalies. Scooby's ability to speak was just absorbed by him."

"But why would he want it?" Fred asked.

"I can only guess that he needed it so he could be reborn, from what he said."

"But why?" Daphne asked. "It doesn't make sense."

Suddenly Dipper let out a groan. "Who cares? Right now he's using my uncle's body and he's gaining power as we speak. If he becomes reborn and gains his physical body, it's going to be Weirdmageddon all over again!"

"Dipper is right," Ford said as he stood up. "We need to stop him, and I have a way. I always was suspicious of Stanly getting his memory back so quick." He turned to Mabel. "Not that I wasn't happy you helped him, Mabel, but—it was too easy. I have a way to suppress Bill's power, but I'm going to have to work quickly to put this formula together."

"Like, I want Scooby back too, but going against this demon—" Shaggy began.

"Okay, Look, I realize you guys are used to solving mysteries and not having anything supernatural being the cause. You guys catch the bad guy and unmask them. That's how you guys do things," Dipper said. "And now," he picked up his bat and slammed the end of it into his hand. "We're going to show you how we do things."

The Mystery Inc. gang looked at each other, then at Scooby.

"Sure. We're in," Fred answered.


	11. Chapter 11: A Brother's Sacrifice

Chapter 11: A Brother's Sacrifice

Down in the basement, Velma read Ford's notes about how to prepare the formula.

"Let's see, you need some type of mold and—fairy dust?" she read.

"Yes, I got those. There's just one ingredient I'm forgetting," he responded. He held his head for a moment. "Damn it!" he shouted suddenly. Velma looked over at him with concerned eyes. At that moment, Mabel and Dipper ran into the study.

"How's it going with making the formula?" Dipper asked.

Ford grunted. "Not well. I can't remember everything. I'm wondering if he made a copy of all the journals. It's sounds like the type of thing he'd do without realizing the risk involved. What I'm looking for was originally in the first journal."

An idea came to Dipper. "Hey, uh, Grunkle Ford, last year, we eventually did let Grunkle Stan know about the third journal. This is before we realized he had the first journal. He took it and had it for that evening and then returned it to us. He said it bored him and that's why he gave it back."

Ford put his head down in thought, and then something came to him.

"He made a copy of it?" he asked.

"I'm not sure about that. I mean, he would have told us, right?" Dipper responded.

"If he did, where would he have them?" Mabel asked.

"Does he have a safe somewhere?" Velma asked.

The eyes of the three family members lit up.

"Yes, he does!" Dipper cried out.

"So, how did you come to the conclusion that Gunkle Stan made a copy of the journal?" Mabel asked Ford.

He was silent as the four of them got into the elevator.

"It's hard to explain. The idea just suddenly came to me," Ford explained. The elevator rose to the first floor. "Well, doesn't it happen for you two?" he asked his grandniece and nephew. "You can feel each other's thoughts?" Mabel and Dipper turned to each other in bewilderment.

"Are you talking about twin telepathy?" Velma asked.

Ford nodded. "Yes, exactly." The elevator opened into the small passageway. Ford led the way towards the back of the vending machine.

"I don't know about telepathy, but Mabel and my allergies act up at the same time," Dipper noted. At that moment, both twins sneezed.

"So, you're saying that Grunkle Stan is communicating to you with twin telepathy?" Mabel asked.

"Maybe," Ford answered as he used his remote control to open the vending machine.

Everyone ran upstairs towards Stan's office.

"Do you kids know the combination?" Ford asked them.

"Uh, no. Like Grunkle Stan would give us the combination," Dipper said bitterly.

"Never mind, I'll just break into it."

The three ran into the office, while Velma waited outside. The rest of the gang joined her.

"What's going on?" Fred asked.

"Apparently, they're breaking into Mr. Pine's safe," she said.

"What?" Daphne asked in shock.

Suddenly the three ran out. "Get down on the ground!" Ford yelled as he shut the office door. Everyone listened. In the next moment, there was an explosion from inside the office.

Ford went back inside the office.

"Holy crap! Where did he get all these guns?" he yelled. The other walked into the office to see the safe's door blown off its hinges and various papers scattered everywhere. Ford knelt down pulling out different types of firearms; two pistols, three nine millimeters, a magnum and an assault rifle with a night scope. "He better not have used my name?" Ford grumbled.

"If he did, these guns are yours," Mabel pointed out.

"Used your name?" Fred asked.

Ford rolled his eyes. "Never mind. Not important right now."

Ford continued looking through the safe, but didn't find any copies of the journal. "Nope. Nothing here," he said. He put his fingers over his eyelids.

"Maybe they're on the copier," Mabel said as she went to check the old machine. After looking for a moment, she turned to her uncle with disdain.

"No, sorry."

Ford breathed in deeply, before punching the side of the safe. "Damn it! Come on Stanley, help me out!"

"I know. If he did make a copy of the journal, it would be up in his room—or Soos' room now," Dipper said.

As everyone exited the office, they saw Soos talking to his grandma in the hallway.

"It's okay, Grandma. Everything is fine, just go back to bed," he said kindly. After she went into her room, Soos turned towards everyone, narrowing his eyes.

"Dudes! Seriously? I don't know what that explosion was, but come on! My grandma is ninety years old! Can you not scare her to death?"

"Sorry Soos," Ford apologized. "I needed to get into Stan's safe."

"We're thinking Grunkle Stan might have made a copy of the journals," Dipper told Soos.

Soos blinked a couple times. "A copy of the journal?" He began walking upstairs. Everyone followed him into his room. He walked over to a picture of Stan. He never took it down. Pushing the frame ajar, he revealed a hidden compartment inside the wall.

"Hey, I remember finding that hidden compartment. I never found a copy of the journal in here, though," Dipper said. "I don't think they're in there—"

"Found it," Soos said pulling out a stack of pages with Ford's writing and drawings of various creatures.

Dipper slapped his forehead. "Really, that son of a bitch couldn't have told us? After losing the originals last year!" Dipper cried out. "Why didn't he tell us?!"

"Dipper!" Ford chastised. "Calm down!" He took the pages from Soos. "Oh, this is journal one," he said. He thumbed through the pages. "Here are all the ingredients. The last thing we need is unicorn eye-lashes."

"No! Not unicorns!" Mabel yelled. The Mystery Inc. gang turned to her in surprise.

"Don't worry, Mabel," her uncle said. "Remember when you girls came back from your quest, you brought me hair and eye-lashes and even a treasure—oh wait, Stanley took that."

"So, you have everything you need?" Fred asked.

"Yeah, I'll get the formula done and then we'll go on from there."

Down on the third floor of the basement Ford finished mixing the ingredients. The formula came out as a powder, which he put into a vial. After stuffing the container into his jacket, he moved towards the elevator. It was then he heard his brother's voice again.

 _Stop him Stanford. Take that son of a bitch out, even if you have to kill me._

Ford stopped in mid-step. He leaned against the wall, covering his eyes, as they filled with tears.

Upstairs in the shop, everyone waited for Ford to come out from the vending machine passage. Shaggy leaned against the counter, looking down at Scooby. He felt like his best pal was gone forever.

"Like, if we defeat that demon, then will Scooby talk again?"

Fred let out a long sigh. "I have no idea. This whole thing is way out of my grasp in logic."

The front of the vending machine swung open and Ford walked out. Dipper turned to his great uncle, noting the redness in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Ford gave his nephew a solemn look as to say, 'no, but I need to take care of this.'

"Did you make the formula or whatever?" Dipper asked further. Ford nodded and walked through the door leading outside.

"Okay, he's scaring me," Mabel whispered to her brother.

Outside Fred walked to his van and opened the driver's side. He turned to the others.

"So, there's the front seat and the back is all open," Fred explained. Ford looked in the back

"Seriously? You don't have a back seat? How are we supposed to ride safely in this thing?"

"Don't worry, sir," Shaggy began. "Me and Scooby are always safe back here."

"You mean, Scooby and me and this doesn't look safe," Ford argued.

"God! It's fine Uncle Ford!" Dipper yelled. "Just get in!" Everyone stared at him, especially Ford who raised an eyebrow.

"Fine. We don't have time to argue!" he said hastily as he climbed into the back of the van. He put the bag with the pistols and ammo next to him. Dipper and Mabel followed. Then Soos got in with Shaggy and Scooby. They sat on the floor, behind the front seat.

"So, this is what the back of a hippie van is like," Soos said.

Fred, Daphne and Velma got into the front.

The van took off down the road.

"Where are we going exactly?" Fred asked.

Ford sighed. "I'm hoping he left some trail, possibly some sort of path of destruction.

"You mean, like that?" Velma asked, pointing at some fallen trees.

"Yeah, that will work," he said. "Can you stop?"

Fred pulled over to the side and parked. Ford went out the back. He checked over the area. It wasn't just a few fallen trees, there was a long trail of fallen trees, broken limbs and burnt foliage. Ford turned back towards the van. Fred rolled down the window as he walked over.

"I'm going on foot. Just keep going down to the next road and make a left," Ford instructed.

"Wait!" Dipper yelled. He ran out the back. He looked gravely at his uncle. "I'm going with you."

"Me too!" Mabel yelled as she joined them. Ford looked earnestly at the kids. "You two need to stay with the others in the van.

"What?" Dipper cried out. "Are you kidding me?"

Ford's eyes hardened. "Do I look like I'm kidding?" Dipper back up, surprised by his uncle's outburst. Ford softened his gaze. "Trust me okay?"

"Well, then take this," Mabel said handing her uncle a walkie-talkie. He took it from her.

"Okay, now go back to the van." Ford walked further into the woods.

Mabel and Dipper re-entered the back of the van.

"What is your uncle doing?" Daphne asked.

"We're not sure," Dipper responded.

"Well, I'm going to that road he talked about," Fred said as he put the van in gear.

Ford followed the burnt trial knowing he'd eventually run into his possessed twin. Another several feet, Ford saw wild fires in the distance. He stopped, turned his heels and bolted the opposite direction. He held the walkie-talkie. "Dipper! You guys need to stay out of the woods. There's a fire!"

The walkie-talkie cracked, but no one responded. Suddenly, someone ran into Ford, knocking him to the ground. He looked up to see a strange skeleton monster with one eye. He cried out, and then rolled to his feet. Drawing the magnum from its holster, he aimed and fired at the creature. The bullet pierced through its skull and it dropped to the ground. Ford's breathing steadied. He stared down at it, and then stomped on its head, it's skull cracked beneath his boot.

Fred found the road where he was told to turn. He made the left and continued down a ways. Trees were on either side of them now; it didn't take long until the forest fires were visible. Fred slammed his foot on the breaks, bring the Mystery Machine to a halt.

"Looks like we can't get through this way," he said.

"But, Grunkle Ford is out there!" Mabel shouted.

"He chose to go out there by himself," Dipper said bitterly.

Mabel pulled out the walkie-talkie. "Hey, Grunkle Ford?" The device cracked a little as she heard a voice respond.

"Where are you guys?" Ford's voice came over the speaker.

"We're on the road you told us about, but there's a fire up ahead," Dipper said.

"I know. Get out of there!"

Dipper rolled his eyes. "No duh!" he whispered.

"I'll turn around," Fred said. Dipper handed the walkie-talkie back to Mabel.

"Are you upset with Grunkle Ford?" she asked.

Dipper put his fingers on his eyelids. "I don't know. Sort of—" He looked at Mabel's whose warm brown eyes returned a look of concern. Dipper sighed.

"He wouldn't let us go with him. When he came out of the basement, I just felt there was something really wrong with him. I just feel like he's hiding something."

"I'm sure he just wants us to be safe," Mabel said.

Dipper pounded his fist into the floor of the van. "Safe? Mabel, you and I are almost fourteen. We've faced countless monsters and for God sake, we survived Weirdmageddon! Our great uncle knows this, but suddenly he's acting like we're too weak to help him!" Mabel turned away. She looked down at the walkie-talkie as if waiting for her Grunkle to say something, but it remained silent.

"Fred drove the Mystery Machine out of the woods and turned back onto the road he was previously on. As he looked out of the windshield, he saw someone standing in the road.

"Is that Ford over there?" Daphne asked. The headlights caught the figure as it approached. Fred slowed down and stopped the vehicle as the figure walked up to the window. Fred rolled down the window. "Mr. Pines?" he asked. Then, the figure looked up. The light caught its face. It wasn't Ford. Fred gasped at the ugly brownish-green color skin and bloodshot eyes; it's clothing torn. The figure groaned and held out its arms.

"Yikes!" Fred shouted as he rolled up the window. His foot hit the gas pedal and the van took off.

"L-like w-what was that?" Shaggy stammered.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think it was a zombie."

"What?" Everyone else cried out.

"Well, good thing we got a bunch of guns," Dipper said picking up one of the pistols from the bag his uncle threw in there earlier.

"G-guns?" Shaggy asked hesitantly.

"Whoa! Hold on, we can't just start shooting and asking questions later," Fred said.

"See the problem is that this creature looks like one of the monsters we've unmasked," Velma explained. "We need to make sure that isn't the case again."

Dipper narrowed his eyes. "Why would someone be in a zombie costume out here in the middle of the night?" he asked.

"Good question," Daphne responded. "That's why we call it a mystery."

Dipper groaned, sinking his head into his hands.

"That's a weird looking zombie though," Mabel said. "We've faced zombies before. They had this greenish glow around them and their flesh hung off their bones."

"Ew! That sounds awful!" Daphne said.

"Yeah, but our Grunkle Stan took care of them. He swung his baseball bat into their heads, then he started punching them!" Mabel said proudly.

"How about you call your uncle on that walkie-talkie, Mabel," Velma suggested. "We'll meet him when he comes out of the woods."

"B-but what if he runs into the zombie?" Shaggy asked nervously. Dipper and Mabel turned to each other with a smirk.

"Well then, I hope it isn't someone in a mask, because he'll probably kill it," Dipper responded.

Soon, Fred spotted something up ahead. As the lights of the Mystery Machine set on the figure, Fred hit the breaks. Everyone looked out at the creature with wide shoulders, wearing torn clothing, its skin had a green tint with a mess of brown hair on top of its head. It moaned as it held out its hands.

"Another zombie?" Dipper asked.

"No. I can't believe it!" Velma cried out.

"Who it that?" Mabel asked.

"It looks like the Creeper," Velma answered.

"The what?" Dipper asked.

"It's one of the monsters we unmasked," Fred answered.

Dipper did a palm strike to the face. "Again?"

"Hey, how about we just go up to him and try to take the mask off? Then you'll know for sure," Mabel suggested.

"Oh yeah, sure, go right ahead," Daphne said jokingly.

Suddenly, the monster picked up the front of the van. Everyone inside cried out. Fred hit the gas, but the van didn't move. The tires just spun in place.

"Like, this is really too much," Shaggy moaned.

Suddenly, they heard a gunshot. The Creeper let go of the Mystery Machine and grabbed its arm. It ran off into the woods. Another figure came out onto the road.

"Now, who's coming? The eyes of Dipper and Mabel brightened as they saw the figure in trench coat holding the gun. They opened the back of the van and Ford jumped inside.

"Are you okay?" Mabel asked him.

"I'm fine," Ford answered. "But I don't know where these monsters are coming from."

"So, t-they're real monsters?" Shaggy asked.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure," he answered.

"What are we doing now?" Dipper asked.

Ford held his head, "I—

"Is there another road that leads into the forest?" Fred asked.

"Yeah, just go further down this way," Dipper said pointing straight ahead.

As they entered the forest, there was no sign of the fire, which was odd.

"So, do we have a plan?" Mabel asked her uncle. "I mean, how are we stopping Bill?"

"Uh, well—" Ford began. "Don't worry about that. I'll take care of it."

"What? Why are you being so secretive right now?" Dipper asked, annoyed.

"I'm not!" he returned hastily. "I'm just telling you that I'll handle everything, okay?"

"No, it's not okay!" Dipper returned just as crudely. "You told me after I found out about the deal you and Bill made, you weren't going to keep any more secrets!"

Ford stared at his nephew with hardened eyes. "Okay, fine." He took out a page of the journal from the inside pocket of his coat. He let out a sigh. "I'm going to offer my mind to Bill. He'll no doubt leave Stanley's mind go into mine." The entire van went silent. Dipper, Mabel and even Soos stared at Ford as if he was completely insane.

"What?" Mabel questioned.

"Why?" Dipper asked his eyes welled up with tears. "I don't understand. What are you saying?"

"What do you mean, you're going to offer your mind?" Daphne asked, a little horrified.

"He means, he's going to make a deal with Bill so he'll go inside my uncle's mind," Dipper explained.

"Last year, Stanley and I tricked Bill into going into his mind, instead of mine. Bill wanted to get out of Gravity Falls and make Weirdmageddon happen around the entire world. There was a barrier keeping him from leaving the town and I learned the equation to break the barrier. However, I wouldn't give it to him. Then, he threatened to hurt Dipper and Mabel. Stanley and I switched places; he never knew until after he went into Stan's mind. Then, I erased his mind, which was supposed to erase Bill too."

"It sounds like Bill wasn't totally erased," Fred concluded.

"Well, yeah, you know that now."  
"But, Grunkle Ford, you can't let Bill into your mind. Won't he take over the world?" Mabel asked.

Ford looked genuinely at his niece and nephew. "Not if we destroy him while he's in there." He handed the journal page to Dipper. "This incantation will destroy the mind. You just read it while he's in there, okay?" Dipper stared with expressionless eyes as he took the piece of paper. He read it.

"Uh, it looks like we needs some ingredients to perform this spell," Dipper said as he sniffed back his tears.

"Right, I got everything. I just need the blood of a being pure of heart."

"Is there even such a thing?" Mabel asked.

"There are beings of pure heart, but—," Ford paused and then turned to look at Scooby. "— they're usually not people."

"Like, why are you looking at Scooby?" Shaggy asked shakily.

"Sorry, Scooby, but you're it. And now that you've been reduced to your most simplest form, you definitely can play the part." Ford laughed lightly. "In a way, Bill helped us out."

"Wait! You can't just take Scooby's blood," Daphne wailed.

"It will just be a tiny bit," Ford assured her.

Dipper looked down at the spell. "I still don't like this," he said gravely.

"I know," Ford answered.

He took the vial out of his jacket and turned to Scooby. His eyes went to Shaggy.

"You should probably do this. He trusts you the most."

"L-like, d-do what?"

Ford took out a finger prick.

"You just push this into Scooby's paw and then I'll put some blood into the vial.

Shaggy looked at the small device, and then fainted. Ford rolled his eyes. "Seriously?"

"Let me do it," Velma said.

Velma climbed over the front seat and sat down next to Scooby. Ford handed her the instrument.

"Sorry, Scooby. Just hold still okay?" She pricked Scooby's paw. He whined a little, but that was it. Then she took his paw and put it over the vial. "Okay, it's done," she said.

"Thank you," Ford told her.

"Uh, we have another problem," Fred said.

Up ahead, a tall figure stood in the middle of the road. As the van approached the figure, the headlights illuminated a pale face.

"Jeepers! It's the zombie again!" Daphne yelled.

"He's blocking the road," Fred said. "I'm not sure what I should do."

"What do you mean you're not sure what to do?" Ford interjected. "You're in a two ton van, run him down!" Everyone's stunned eyes fell onto Ford.

"What? Are you crazy?" Fred cried out. Ford's only response was to return Fred's question with a cold glare. Fred turned towards the road.

"I wonder if this old van will take the abuse," he said quietly.

"Fred, you're not really going to just hit someone, are you?"

"Well Daphne, it is a zombie. He's already dead."

"Wait, are we now saying this is a real zombie?" she asked further.

"I don't know, but the way I see it, I have two choices, hit the zombie and risk damage to the van and hitting a person inside a costume or not hitting the zombie and dealing with the angry old man in the back carrying a bunch of firearms." Fred pushed the gas pedal all the way down, causing the van to pick up speed.

"Whoa! Like Fred, hold on!" Shaggy yelled. Suddenly, the van hit the zombie head on, causing the creature to fly over the hood and to the side of the road, rolling several times.

"Ten points!" Soos yelled.

He, Dipper and Mabel cheered slapping high fives. Mabel moved up to the front seat holding her hand up. "Come on, you know you want to." Fred, Daphne and Velma gave patronizing slaps.

For a few minutes, it looked like it would be a clear path. Then, someone else stepped out into the road. He raised his hands, causing the pavement to crack. When the van hit these cracks, it veered out of control. Everyone in the back of the van cried out as they were thrown hard into right wall.

"Ow!" Ford rubbed his head. "See, this is what I was talking about when I said riding back here wasn't safe!" Another crack appeared in the pavement, sending the Mystery Machine into a 360 spin right into two large tree trunks. The riders groaned, as they lay motionless for a moment. Fred lifted his head from the driver's side window to see Stan walking towards them. Of course he knew right away that it wasn't really Stan.

"Ford!" he yelled. Ford groaned as he sat up. He looked through the cracked windshield to see his twin strolling towards them with a huge menacing grin. He took the vial from his coat, which thankfully didn't break.

"This is it," he said. "Dipper, I'm counting on you. After Bill enters my mind, blow the powder into my face, my senses will take it in. Then, start reading that incantation, got it?"

Dipper's mouth stayed partly open as he stared at his uncle with wide eyes. He still tried to comprehend the fact that he would have a hand in killing his great uncle, the one he had been searching for last summer, the one he clicked instantly with and the one who showed him the way into the world of the supernatural. Before Dipper could respond, Ford hugged him. "You can do this." He then hugged Mabel, who was frozen in her grief.

"This isn't fair," she whispered.

"I know," he responded. Before he left, he looked at Soos and the members of Mystery Inc. "Soos, you're a great guy and you're smarter than you let on. Remember the shack is yours now. Don't let Stan tell you how to run things. And as for the rest of you kids, thanks for your help. Especially you Scooby-Doo. I hope you understand me. You should get your voice back after Bill is gone. I don't know why you're different than other dogs, but it's a gift." He left the van.

"Wait! Great Uncle Ford!" Dipper tried to yell, but he lost his voice as it was taken over by tears. He gripped his face in the deepest grief he ever felt. "Goddamn it!" he screamed as loud as he could. He rushed out of the van following his uncle.

Ford approached his possessed twin who just stared back with a wide grin of malice. He stood there, staring straight into the yellow eyes of his enemy.

"Fordsy! You came all the way here, to watch me be reborn," he heard Bill's voice. "How did your mystery solving friends like the revisit from their favorite mysteries? I learned all about them after I absorbed the energy from their dog."

Ford just stared at him. "What? Nothing?" Bill asked.

"I want to offer you a deal," Ford said finally. He saw Stan's eyebrow rise. "You leave my brother's mind—and come into mine." Stan's eyes squint to almost slits.

"Wait a minute. Why?" he asked. "This sounds like another trick."

"No tricks this time. See," Ford held up his hands. "Six fingers, count them." He held his hand out. "But there's a condition. After you enter my mind, you can't hurt anyone in my family, (that includes Mabel and Dipper's parents), or any friends I've ever made. You also can't send anyone to hurt them. You leave them all alone."

"Wait, I don't need to enter your mind now," Bill said. "I just need to find my body and be reborn."

"Yeah, but you'll be stuck in Gravity Falls like you were last time."

"Oh right, the shield thing. Well, I did leave while in Stan's mind."

"Yeah, so what? You're back here now. You just made one big circle," Ford said with a short laugh.

"Okay, let's say I enter your mind, get that equation and then I can leave this backwater town. What else are you going to do for me?"

Ford breathed in and slowly let the air out as he sighed. "Anything you want." The demon's eyes brightened.

"Okay, you have a deal," he held out his hand. Suddenly, Stan's eyes closed tightly.

 _Ford! What the hell are you doing?_ He suddenly heard his brother's voice. _You idiot! I told you to kill me if you have to! I don't care! Just shoot me in the goddamn head!_

Ford went to take his brother's hand, but suddenly it was pulled away.

"No!" Stan actually spoke with his mouth. Ford's eyes widened.

"Stanley?"

"You bastard demon! You're not going to use my brother as you puppet, you asshole!"

"Stanley!" Ford shouted louder. Suddenly, Stan's eyes opened, showing the yellow irises.

"Man, your brother is stronger than I thought," Bill said. He held out his hand and Ford took it. The most delighted, high pitch cackle erupt from Bill as his spirit form came out of Stan and went right to Ford. He fell backwards onto the ground, lying unconscious.

 _Author's Note: First, I want to thank everyone who is reading this story and all the comments and everything. I'm having a lot of fun writing this story. I had the suggestion given to me earlier on to put the monsters from Scooby Doo in the story. Let me know any others you want added._

 _Again, thanks for your support._


	12. Chapter 12: Truth Revealed in the Flames

Chapter 12: Truth Revealed in the Flames

Dipper walked over to where both his uncles lay. Stan suddenly sat up and looked around.

"What the hell just happened?" he grumbled. He turned to see Ford lying next to him with his eyes closed. "Hey! Stanford, get up you smuck!" His eyes went to Dipper as he held the vial and the journal page. "What are you doing?" Stan asked him.

"Ford told me to make him breathe in this powder, then I'm going to read the incantation to destroy his mind." He spoke with such a monotone voice that Stan didn't think he was serious.

He let out a laugh. "What?"

"It's what he wanted," Dipper said, still emotionless. "Oh, by the way, thanks for telling me you made copies of the journals, you jerk,"

Stan blinked a few times, unable to fully comprehend what his nephew just said. Dipper poured the powder into his hand. He knelt down beside Ford and blew the powder into his face. He hoped he did it right. Then he looked at the piece of paper.

Inside Ford's mind, Bill jumped around for joy. He watched all of the mathematical equations float around with various sheets of notes.

"I'm here! That equation has to be around here somewhere!" He floated up a staircase made of books towards a door. Opening the door, he saw something he didn't expect. He saw a park alongside a beach of white sand and a blue ocean. Ford sat on a swing, gazing out at the water.

"Well, this is more majestic than I expected," Bill said. He floated over. "So, uh, about that equation—"

Ford shrugged without looking at him. "It's around here somewhere," he said.

"Yeah, but where? Do you know how many equations you have floating around in your head? Show me where it is."

"I never said I was going to show you anything," Ford said with a grin. "Find it yourself."

"What?" Bill cried out. "But you also said you were my puppet and I'm commanding you to show me where it is."

"Truthfully, I don't know. It's been a while since I learned it and I only glanced at it a few times. I'm not sure if I even remember it fully," Ford said, messing with him. Bill's one eye glared at Ford.

"Show me now! Or the whole deal about me leaving your family alone is gone! I'll kill everyone you care about if you don't show me that equation, now!" His eye did a pleasant smile. "Or rather, I'll make you kill everyone you care about."

Outside in the real world, Dipper still held onto the journal page. The others had finally made their way over. Dipper looked at his sister.

"I don't know if I can do this," he said.

Suddenly, he heard his great uncle's voice. _Dipper! Read the incantation!_ He looked down at his uncle.

"What exactly are you planning to do?" Stan asked.

Mabel looked at him, tears welling up in her eyes. "Grunkle Ford told Dipper to d-destroy his mind after Bill entered it," she sobbed.

"What?" Stan yelled. He grabbed Dipper's hand, holding the paper. "What the hell, kid?" Dipper pulled his arm back.

"I don't want to do it!" he screeched. "I'm about to kill my hero!" He wiped away his tears.

"Wait, Ford's your hero?" Stan asked in shock. "I thought I was."

A genuine laugh erupted from his nephew. "Yeah, you are Grunkle Stan. You taught me how to be tough. Both of you are my heroes. And I guess that's why I'm doing this for him." He began reading the incantation.

Inside Ford's mind, he heard his nephew's pronouncing the Latin perfectly. A smile crossed his lips. Suddenly, fire exploded, engulfing the ocean, the beach and swings, the blue flames grew higher.

"You're dead, Bill," Ford said as he stood up.

"What the hell is this?" the demon cried out. Ford held out his inter-dimensional gun. "Where did you get that? I destroyed it."

"How the hell do you spend most of your time in the mindscape and know nothing about how it works?" Ford asked coldly. "It's my mind! And you're done screwing with it!

"Oh, that's how you're gonna be, huh?" Bill asked slyly. "Well, then, Fordsy, I have a small parting gift for you!" The demon stretched out his arm, touching Ford on the forehead. Suddenly, a bunch of images exploded in his mind.

He saw Mabel in the woods, sitting against a tall pine tree. She looked into the backpack she thought was hers, only to discover it belonged to Dipper.

"Wrong backpack," she said as she pulled her sweater over her head, defeated. "It's not fair. I wish summer could last forever."

"That might be possible," said a voice.

"Sweater Town is not accepting incoming calls right now,"

"M-mabel, its' me," the stuttering squeaky voice continued.

"Who said that?" she asked peering out of her turtleneck sweater.

Suddenly, a plump man with thick goggles and a baldhead appeared. He walked towards her.

Ford didn't recognize him.

"The time travel guy? What are you doing here?" Mabel asked.

"You said you don't summer to end, did I hear you right?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah, why are you asking?"

"Look, it may be against the rules, but you did something for me, so I thought I could help you out. It's called a time bubble and it stops time from moving forward. Summer in Gravity Falls can last as long as you want it to."

Mabel wiped more tears from her eyes. "Really? But how does it work?" she asked.

"I just need you to get something from your uncle. Something small, he won't even know it's missing." He showed her the cracked rift. Ford's eyes widened.

"Maybe Dipper has something like that in his nerd bag," Mabel said as she looked inside the backpack. Her hands reached into the backpack and pulled out the cracked rift.

"Is this what you want?" she asked.

"Yes, that it, just hand it here and I'll do my thing," he started getting more excited. "Unless you're ready to leave Gravity Falls?"

Mabel looked down at the item, then back up at the man. "Just a little more summer," she held it out to him.

Ford screamed, or he thought he did. _Mabel! What are you doing? Don't give that to him!_

The man took it, holding it for a second. Then— _crash!_ The orb hit the ground and the man smashed it with his foot, sending millions of pieces of the rift everywhere. Suddenly, Bill's shrill laughter came out of the man as he removed the goggles, showing his yellow eyes.

"Oh no! Wait! Wait!" Mabel yelled, but it was too late. The man snapped his fingers, making her pass out. Bill went on, saying the world was his. Ford watched, horrified. Then he shook himself out of it.

He suddenly saw Bill standing in front of him. "That's right, Fordsy, your niece started Weirdmageddon."

"You son of a bitch! Go to Hell!" Ford lashed out with all his rage. Bill just laughed. Ford began to squeeze the trigger of his gun.

"Goodbye, Bill. This time, you're not coming back!" He pulled the trigger, sending beams of energy into Bill's eye. The demonic triangle burst into millions of particles. The blue flames grew higher, engulfing Ford.


	13. Chapter 13: The Forest Illusion

Chapter 13: The Forest Illusion

Outside in the real world, everyone stood around Ford's body. No one spoke for long time.

"Is he—" Stan dared to ask.

Dipper had fallen to his knees, almost hyperventilating. Mabel sat by his side, rubbing his back, trying to calm him down.

"Great—Uncle Ford—I—" He dropped the piece of paper as he began sobbing.

Stan just looked at his brother's body. "God, no—" he whispered. All at once, he got up and began kicking Ford in the ribs. "You arrogant bastard! I frickin' hate you!"

"Mr. Pines, stop it!" Soos pulled him away. Stan breathed heavily as tears ran down his face. "Why didn't he just let be the one to sacrifice myself?" Stan turned and punched a nearby tree, which with his brass knuckled didn't hurt that much.

Suddenly, a low moan came from behind the tree. The Creeper stumbled forward, still bearing the gunshot wound.

"Zoinks! Creepy's back!" Shaggy wailed.

"Oh, I am not in the mood!" Stan yelled. He drew his fist back and punched the monster in the face, forcing the creature to fall unconscious onto the ground.

Everyone stared down at the monster that lay motionless.

"Well, that's one way to get rid of the monster," Fred said.

"So, what's up with this all of the sudden?" Stan asked gesturing at the Creeper.

"We don't know," Velma answered. "They just came out of nowhere."

"Yeah, like there was also the zombie," Shaggy said.

Stan pounded his fist into his hand. "Zombie, huh? I can take care of him."

"Yeah, we heard about your track record," Fred responded. "But we shouldn't have to worry about the zombie. I hit it with the Mystery Machine." Stan's eyes widened.

"Your brother insisted we do that," Daphne said crossly. Stan looked silently over at Ford.

"So, now what?" Dipper asked. His eyes were really red from balling his eyes out earlier.

Stan sighed. "I have no clue, kid."

"But, what happened to Bill?" Mabel asked. "Is he gone?"

"He'd better be!" Stan fumed. "After all of that crap!" Shaggy looked over at Scooby.

"Like, Scoob, can you talk again?" Scooby opened his mouth.

"Ruff!" Scooby barked.

"Like, oh no. Scooby still can't talk. Like, didn't Ford say Scooby would talk again once Bill was gone?" Velma picked up the journal page Dipper dropped.

"Which incantation did you read?" she asked him. Dipper pointed to it. "What's this one then?" Velma put her finger on the words below it.

"I don't know, " he answered. "Why?" Velma read the Latin to herself.

(From beyond the living awake and breathe again).

"This sounds like an incantation to bring someone back to life," she said.

"Oh great, we can make Ford a zombie," Shaggy wailed. "Like he wasn't already dangerous enough before."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Stan said. "Bring him back!"

Dipper stared down at his great uncle's body. He did want him to be alive, more than anything. But...

"What if, when we bring him back, we bring Bill back too?" Dipper wondered.

"Would that happen?" Daphne asked.

"Are you serious?" Stan raged at Dipper. "I thought you of all people, would want that man breathing again." Dipper covered his eyes on the verge of tears again.

"I do! But—"

Mabel put her arms around her brother. "I think I understand what Dipper is saying. We don't know what that incantation will really do.

As everyone stood around, a low growl came from some underbrush a few feet away. All eyes went to the sound.

"N-now what?" Shaggy stammered. Scooby began growling back. He closed in on the brushes.

"Who knew that your dog's voice being taken away would make him braver," Stan said. "He's acting like a real dog."

"Yeah, but we don't know what's over there," Fred said. "Be careful Scooby," he warned.

Two beat red eyes stared out at everyone.

"What weapons do we have?" Stan asked. Soos put the bag of guns down and pulled out the pistol. "Alright! That's what I'm talking about!" He took the gun.

"Again with the guns?" Fred asked, aghast.

"What's with you?" Stan asked.

"This is not how we do things," Velma said. "Look, we tried it your way, but maybe we can offer something too. Let's combine our methods."

"So, what are you thinking we should do?" Dipper asked.

Suddenly, the beast from behind the brush jumped out into the open. Everyone stared at a fury creature on two feet, stretching out its claws, its dog-like snout snarling.

"Zoinks! It a werewolf!" Shaggy yelled. Stan pointed the gun at it.

"I don't have silver bullets, but I'm sure it'll still go down!" Before Stan could pull the trigger, something jumped down from the tree above, tackling him to the ground. The gun flew out of his hand and into another bush. Stan looked up into the big yellow eyes of a giant cat-like creature. Stan let out the most horrified scream. Dipper ran at the creature, swinging his bat. However, the cat creature easily blocked the attack, breaking the bat in half.

"Now can we use guns?!" Stan yelled. Suddenly, a bullet rang through the air, hitting the cat creature in the chest. It fell off of Stan and rolled onto the ground. Stan quickly got to his feet. He turned to see Soos holding the other pistol.

"Good Job, Soos. You're getting a raise!"

"But, Mr. Pines, I own the shop now."

"Do you want the raise or not?"

Soos gave a big, wide smile. "You bet."

The cat creature and the werewolf now closed in on the group.

"Okay, so like what's the plan now?" Daphne asked.

Fred looked down at Ford's trench coat. The magnum was in its holster. He took it.

"Looks like we're going to have to do things differently this time, gang." He held the gun out. The werewolf charged. Fred fired the gun, sending a bullet through the creature's head.

"Since when can you shoot a gun, Fred?" Daphne asked.

"Are you kidding? I used to shoot guns all the time at the shooting range with my dad." The beast seemed unaffected as he charged again. Soos shot at the werewolf, hitting the front of his skull. The werewolf staggered backward.

Stan finally retrieved his gun and aimed at the cat creature coming at him. The bullet would have hit the creature in the head if it didn't jump over Stan, landing behind him. Stan whiled around and shot, hitting the monster in the face. What was strange was that the creature didn't bleed. None of the creatures bled for that matter. There wasn't any liquid at all.

As the battle continued, the fire that had started into the woods began spreading, getting closer to everyone.

"Oh my Gosh!" Daphne yelled looking out at the flames. Velma studied the fire for a moment.

"How is there no smoke?" she said.

"What do you mean?" Daphne asked.

"Well, you know, smoke and fire come together. However, I don't see any smoke and I don't feel any heat either. With a fire this big, we all should be sweltering being this close to it." More gunshots went off. The girls, along with Shaggy turned to watch the struggle with the monsters. No matter how many times each monster was shot, they just got back up again.

It was at that moment they heard someone chanting. Within the flames stood a figure wearing a tribal mask. He hopped around, doing a native dance.

"Who is that?" Shaggy asked.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say its that witch doctor from that mystery in Hawaii," Velma said.

"He's standing right in the fire, but it doesn't seem to affect him," Daphne said.

"What? Something else we have to kill?" Stan asked, trying to avoid the cat creature's claws. "Soos, shoot this thing!"

"I'm out of bullets, Mr. Pines," he answered.

"So am I!" Stan yelled back. "What other guns do we have?"

Dipper pulled out the rifle with the night scope. "Gimme that!" Stan grabbed it, aimed at the cat creature and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the creature head on, but now, it didn't even slow the monster down.

"What the hell?!" Stan yelled. He turned to the others with terrified eyes. "I seriously don't know what else to do!"

"Then let us come up with a plan," Velma said.

"How about we run!" Shaggy yelled. He ran off.

"I can't leave Ford behind!" Stan shouted. Soos picked him up and carrying him over his shoulder.

"I got him, Mr. Pines." Everyone ran away from the monsters and the rising fire.

They ran towards a clearing from the trees up ahead.

"Alright everyone, I have a plan to catch those three, but everyone is going to have to play their part," Fred said.

As the three monsters approached the clearing, Shaggy, Scooby, Dipper, and Soos stepped out into the open, wearing fire marshal uniforms. The three monsters stopped, staring at them, not knowing what they were doing. Soos waved his hands.

"It's okay Dudes. We're going to get this fire under control. We just need you three to go to the right path over there," he pointed to a dirt path leading away from the clearing. The monsters looked at each other, confused and then followed the path.

"Like, keep going down that way. You'll see the painted X's on the trees," Shaggy said. After, the monsters left out of sight, Dipper turned to Shaggy.

"Okay, that was weird. Why did they listen to us?"

"Like, I never know why, but we've done these charades a lot and they always work," Shaggy responded.

Meanwhile, Stan was with Fred, and Mabel stood with Daphne and Velma. The girls all wore nurse outfits. Ford stay lay unconscious on the ground, now with a blanket covering him. Suddenly they heard footsteps. The monsters looked at Daphne, Velma, and Mabel pretending to tend to Ford's injuries. Fred and Stan hid behind the trees each holding a long rope tied to the branches up above. Fred turned to Stan. "Okay, you remember what to do?"

"Yeah—I guess. This is the weirdest way I've ever seen someone catch three monsters," he said.

As the monsters approached the girls, Daphne turned towards them holding a first aide kit.

"Don't worry, we have plenty of these to go around," she said. "Where are you injured?" she asked. The monsters looked at one another in confusion. "I see a burn mark on you," she said to the werewolf showing his scorched fur. Daphne wrapped a bandage around his arm.

"Okay, now we need you three to stand in that circle," Velma said pointing to the spray painted circle on the ground. "You'll be safe there."

"Are they really going to fall for it?" Stan whispered to Fred.

"It looks like they are."

Stan rolled his eyes. "Then they're the world's dumbest monsters."

The cat-creature, werewolf, and witch doctor all stood in the circle. Suddenly the leaves gave way and all three fell into a deep hole.

"Okay, now!" Fred yelled. Both he and Stan let go of their ropes. A big net came down on the monsters "We got them!" He and Stan ran over to the girls.

"Great job!" Velma said excitedly.

Shaggy led the others over. "Like, did it work?" he asked.

"See for yourself," Fred said, looking down into the hole. The monsters still struggled to get out of the net.

"So, usually we do the unmasking here," Daphne said. "But, we already determined their real, so—" She turned to Fred. "Now what?"

"Maybe we find out what's going on with this fire," Dipper suggested.

Mabel sat next to Ford still. "Can we bring back Grunkle Ford now?" she asked sorrowfully.

"I guess, this is a good time to try," Dipper responded, taking out the journal page.

"Hold on," Velma said. "I read the incantation. There are also directions. You can't be a direct family member." She took the page from him. Dipper smiled.

"Thanks Velma," he said.

"You don't need any ingredients this time?" Daphne asked.

"Nope. However, I need everyone to stand at least five feet away." Everyone listened. Velma touched Ford's head and started speaking the Latin words. As she did, the powder he breathed in earlier came back out of his nose and mouth. Suddenly, he coughed. His family members all turned with hopeful expressions. Then, Ford sat up.

"Y-you're alive!" Stan yelled as he ran over. He stood there a moment. Part of him wanted to punch his brother in the face, but all he ended up doing was throwing his arms around his twin.

"Stanley?" Ford's hoarse voice spoke. He looked around at all the happy faces. He grabbed his head. "I'm—alive? How?"

"That journal page also had an incantation to bring you back," Dipper said. Ford gritted his teeth with fearful eyes. "What? You weren't supposed to read that one!" Dipper turned away.

"What's the big deal?" Stan asked crossly.

"The big deal is that Bill was inside my mind and the first spell destroyed my mind with him inside."

"Oh God! Was I right?" Dipper asked. "When we brought you back, we brought him back too?"

"I don't know," Ford answered. He tried to stand, but his legs felt weak. Using Stan, he gained his balance. Suddenly, Ford grabbed his right side where Stan kicked him. "Why do my ribs hurt?"

Stan avoided eye contact. "Have no idea," he said quickly.

"Well, anyway, there's one way we can make sure that demon doesn't take physical form again. Have you found his stone body yet?"

"We had no idea we should look for it," Velma said. At that moment, he heard the cries from the monsters in the hole. He walked over and looked down.

"What in the world?" he cried out.

"Yeah, so, these monsters showed up and we tried shooting them, but it didn't work," Stan explained. "And there's this fire." Ford looked at the flames engulfing the woods.

"This isn't a real fire," he said finally. "I can't believe I let the illusion trick me."

"Illusion?" Fred asked.

"Do we have anything that can break a stone statue? Like a sledge hammer?"

"We have a drill in the Mystery Machine," Fred answered.

"Okay, I'm going to need it," Ford responded.

After getting to the van, Fred looked for the drill.

"Okay Shaggy, where is it?" Shaggy put a hand to his chin. "Gee, I don't know, Fred." Fred groaned.

"Just as well, you need to plug it in," Velma said. Suddenly, Soos saw something hidden under the front seat. He pulled out a long handled hammer.

"Will this work?" he asked.

"Yes!" Ford answered excitedly.

Back in the woods, the group followed the fire blaze until they all saw a chasm in the middle of the forest.

"What the hell?" Stan cried out. Ford moved towards the giant gap. Peering inside, he saw a red glow. It was as if he looked into the gateway into another dimension. "This is really interesting," he said. "This is a new one. I've never seen anything like this."

Scooby sniffed around the area. Suddenly, his nose hit something hard. He looked up to see a stone triangle with a top hat and one eye carved into the stone. He began barking wildly.

"Like, what's up Scooby?" He just barked. It took Shaggy a moment to realize that was the only way Scooby could communicate now. He walked over to see.

"Yikes! It's Bill!" He ran the other way. Fred stopped him.

"That's a stone statue, Shaggy."

Ford looked over at it. "You found it!" He took the hammer in his hand. Everyone watched as Ford approached the statue. His eyes stared coldly at it. He could feel Bill within the sculpture and maybe still inside him. He raised the hammer and swung down, making contact with the stone. He swung over and over again, grunting as if getting out every aggressive emotion he ever felt towards the triangular being.

Finally, the statue lay in grumbled pieces. A strange energy evaporated from the pieces. The fire disappeared along with the chasm. Ford leaned on the hammer, breathing heavily. He almost fell over from exhaustion. Stan put an arm around him for support.

"Feel better?" he asked. Ford smiled.

"Yeah, I actually do." A tear fell from his eye; he wiped it away. "It's actually over."

Suddenly, Scooby stood up on his hind legs. He tapped Shaggy on the shoulder. Shaggy turned to his pal.

"Ri'm rungry!" he said.

"Oh, okay Scooby, We'll get you something to eat— Wait a minute! Scooby, you're talking again!"

Fred and the girls turned to Scooby.

"Scooby?" Daphne asked.

"Reah!" The gang hugged the Great Dane, all going on about how they were happy to have him back.

Everyone walked back towards the van. It still sat in poor condition.

"Are you going to be able to drive this?" Ford asked Fred.

"I don't know." He checked the tires, which looked fine. However, when he tried to start the van, it showed something wrong with is battery.

"Don't worry, I'll fix it," Soos said. "Pop your hood." Fred did so and Soos got to work. In a matter of moments, the van started again. Everyone climbed into the van. Fred put the van into gear and drove towards the Mystery Shack.

 _Author's Note: This chapter may have been a little too silly. I wanted the Mystery Inc. gang to capture the monsters like they do in the show. This story is almost done. There will be one more chapter after this one. Again, I've had fun writing this and I'm glad for the support._

 _Thanks._


	14. Chapter 14: Stay In Touch

They got back to the shack as the sun rose over the hills. It didn't matter. Everyone was ready to sleep. Ford climbed up the stairs that led into the attic. He saw Dipper reading and Mabel was curled up asleep. He smiled. It was probably too late to talk to Mabel right now. He wondered if he should even have the conversation with her. Bill obviously showed him what actually happened to the rift so that he would either lose trust in his niece or become angry with her or both. It was his fault for not telling her about Bill and the rift. Even worse, he told Dipper not to say anything to her. He almost tore the twins apart because of his own issues. As he turned to leave, he heard Mabel's voice.

"Grunkle Ford," she whispered. He turned. He saw her eyes were closed.

"What is it?" He walked over to her bed. It appeared as if she were sleeping soundly. "I'm so sorry," she said. He raised an eyebrow.

"Mabel?" She didn't respond. He turned to leave again.

"No! Wait!" he heard her voice. "It's all my fault," she said softly. "I just wanted—" Was she talking in her sleep? She must be dreaming, he realized.

"The end of the world happened because of me—" He was about to wake her, but then she stopped sleep talking and seemed to be sleeping soundly. Ford looked over at Dipper.

"It sounds like she's having a nightmare," Ford said. He stared at Dipper for a moment. "I know this may sound like it's coming out of nowhere, but, I need to know what happened when you talked to Mabel last year about being my apprentice."

Dipper closed his book, letting out a long sigh. "Well, you know everything. She got upset and then accidently left with my backpack—which had the rift in it." He turned away from his uncle.

Ford nodded. "I know what happened," he said.

Dipper's eyes widened as he turned back around. "S-she told you?"

"No. Bill showed me, while we were in the Mindscape."

"What? Are you friggin' kidding me?"

Ford grabbed his head. "Nope. He showed me after realizing my plan to kill him." He removed his hand as he laid his eyes genuinely on his nephew. "I saw everything."

"Ford, please don't be mad at Mabel. Look, she finally told me about the rift. I was mad at first, but she really does feel bad," Dipper pleaded.

"I don't blame her. I'm sorry," Ford said. "I was so wrong for what I tried to do to you two."

"No one blames you," Dipper said. "But, she can't forgive herself. Maybe you need to talk to her.

"I will tomorrow. Have a good night," Ford said as he patted Dipper on the shoulder.

"Good night," Dipper said as he turned off the lamp on the nightstand.

Ford turned towards Mabel's bed where she lay.

"—My fault—I'm so sorry—" he heard Mabel whisper. Ford moved over to her bed, bent down, and kissed her on the forehead.

"I forgive you," he said softly. "Now, forgive yourself." He listened for a moment. Mabel stopped mumbling. Ford stood up and left the room.

The next morning, the Mystery Inc. gang awoke and met in the living room. There was an all around sense of accomplishment, but there were still questions they felt needed answers.

"So, the fire and the monsters were illusions," Velma said slowly.

"Yeah, but those monsters seemed so real. The paint on the hood of the Mystery Machine got chipped when we hit the zombie."

Daphne shook her head with a slight smile on her face. "I still can't believe you actually hit it," she said.

"So, like, what do you want answered, Velma?" Shaggy asked.

"Supposedly, the presence of Bill's stone body caused the illusion. I'm just not sure why? And how long was the illusion there? It didn't seem to appear until he went to look for his body and we followed after him."

"Like, it doesn't matter. It's all gone. He's gone. Let's just leave it at that," Shaggy said.

"Reah," Scooby agreed.

"Sorry, I need to talk to Ford about all this," Velma said as she headed into the hallway. She approached the gift shop and peeked inside where she saw Ford holding Mabel. She sobbed with her head on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," she cried.

"Mabel, I told you. It's not your fault." He glanced sincerely at his niece. "I guess you learned a valuable lesson though. If you had just brought the rift back to me, then—" Ford stopped. How would he have responded to her last year if she did that? Knowing how he was back then, he may have yelled at her. He was fixed with such paranoia. "Never mind. It's all over now."

"Grunkle Ford, did Dipper ever tell you about the day you came back through the portal into this dimension?"

Ford stared vacantly at her for a moment. "No. We never talked about that day. I uh, honestly didn't want to bring it up because it's also the day Stanley said to me—" He recalled how angry his brother was at him, telling him they were no longer family.

"Dipper screamed at me to hit the button to shut off the portal." Ford's eyes widened. "H-he did?"

"I didn't listen to him. I listened to Grunkle Stan. So, I guess there too, I was responsible for everything that happened."

"I—no. I'm glad you didn't press the button. I'm glad to be back home."

Fresh tears formed in Mabel's eyes. "But, I regretted it!" she yelled. "After Dipper told me he wasn't coming back to California with me. I thought to myself, 'I should have pressed that button!'"

Ford let out a long sigh. "Mabel. Enough. Please, we got through it all. No more regrets, okay?"

Velma waited as Mabel walked through the door leading outside the shack. Ford stood still for a moment with his hand gripping part of his hair. He turned suddenly, noticing her there.

"Where did you come from?"

"I've just been standing here for a moment," Velma answered.

"How much did you just hear?" he asked, his tone darkened a bit. It scared Velma a little, but she held her ground.

"Not too much, and what I did hear, didn't make a whole lot of sense, so—" She smiled. He returned a smile too. "You know, I've never met a scientist like you before, Ford. Most of them are not as—I don't know, what's the word, intense."

"Intense?" he asked as if impressed. "Never heard someone use that word to describe me before."

"So, this portal you went through—" Ford put up a hand to stay 'stop.'

"Not going to talk about it. Sorry." Velma nodded. She expected that reaction. Whatever happened to him was staying a secret until he died.

"So, can you explain this whole illusion in the forest? I get that the statue of Bill created the illusion. I just don't understand why?"

"I don't know why either. But the chasm and the fire disappeared. Even the monsters were gone when we looked in the hole." He pinched the sides of his eyelids. "Have no idea how you tricked them into falling into it."

Velma shrugged. "The guns weren't working?"

He looked up. "Guns?"

"Yeah, you're family seems to have a thing about using weapons."

Ford laughed. "We come from a long line of gun users. My dad owned every type of gun you can think of. He made sure his three sons knew how to use them."

"Three of you?" Velma asked. Then realized there had to be another sibling to be the grandparent of Dipper and Mabel. "So, you have another brother?"

Ford nodded. "He's passed away now." His eyes grew sad. "From what Stanley said, he died while I was in the other dimension."

"I guess I won't ever hear about this other dimension," Velma said.

Ford smiled. "I might tell you a little bit some time. But we'll have to keep in touch somehow."

"I can give you my email address," she said.

"Email, huh? Still haven't gotten one of those yet."

"Well, I'll still give you mine and when you sign up for your own, send me an email."

Ford nodded. "Okay. Maybe Dipper can help me with that."

Later that morning, everyone stood outside next to the Mystery Machine. Fred and Shaggy loaded all of their bags into the back. Stan looked at the vehicle, giving a long sigh. "Well, it was nice while it lasted."

"How much money did you actually make?" Daphne asked.

Stan shrugged. "Uh, a little bit. I guess it wasn't as big as I thought it would be."

"Told you!" Fred responded as he passed Stan to the door of the driver's side.

Stan mumbled under his breath about Fred being a 'know it all' hippie.

As the gang got into the vehicle, Dipper handed Fred a piece of paper. "Here's my email. Don't forget about us, okay?"

Fred let out a loud laugh. "Kid, we're never _ever_ going to forget about you guys or this town." Fred drove off as the Pines family and Soos waved.

The van reached Greesy's Diner.

"Hey, like anyone hungry?" Shaggy asked.

"Yeah, sure. Let's have one more meal here."

As they got out of the van, they saw Wendy and her friend Tambry sitting outside on the cement stub in a handicapped parking spot. Wendy looked up.

"Hey!" she waved and walked over.

"Hi, is everything going alright?" Fred asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, Dipper just texted me about what happened last night. Dudes, I wish someone called me! I would have loved to help take out that stupid one eyed triangle!"

"Actually, we owe it to the Pines' family. They are really an interesting bunch," Velma said.

"I'm glad I know them too," Wendy said.

"Yeah," Fred said as he gave a nervous laugh.

"Well, we're, like, getting something to eat," Shaggy said.

"Oh, and then what?" Wendy asked.

"Well, that's it for our trip to Gravity Falls," Fred said. "At least for now."

"Oh," Wendy answered, her mouth turned down. The gang started to walk into he diner. Suddenly, Wendy stopped Shaggy. "Hey, here's my number. Keep in touch, okay?" She smiled at him.

Shaggy was at a loss for words. "Okay, like sure." He took the piece of paper with the number on it. He punched in the number on his phone and hit the call button. Wendy's phone rang. She looked at it and then hit the 'end' button. "Dude, you didn't think I gave you a fake number did you?"

Shaggy shrugged and laughed nervously. Shaggy waved 'bye' as he walked with Scooby into the diner.

After they ate, Mystery Incorporated climbed into their van that would forever be stuck in the 1960's. It moved on down the road, and across the strange rock formation, believed to be created by an alien spaceship. They saw the large water tower displaying the name of this mysterious town and finally sped passed at sign with bold lettering reading, 'Welcome to Gravity Falls, and in smaller lettering, 'Nothing to see here.'

 _Author's Note: This is the end of the story. I had fun writing it! I want to thank everyone who read and commented on the story. Thanks for the support!_

 _I'm working on a few more stories._

 _1\. This Is What Happens When..._

 _This story is completed. It's is a short story about the nightmares Mabel had about the rift and the conversation she has with Dipper about the whole incident._

 _2\. What Silently Falls Within Us_

 _I'm also working on another crossover with Gravity Falls and Silent Hill, entitled 'What silently Falls Within Us.' (I loved the early Silent Hill games, in fact, the first few fanfics I wrote were for Silent Hill). This takes place a few months after the show ended. Stan and Ford are hunting anomalies and end up in the town of Silent Hill._

 _3\. The Other World_

 _Lastly, I'm working on a Gravity Falls story that takes place three years after the show. The entire Pines family ends up going into the other dimension where Ford was trapped for thirty years. The title I'm going with is called 'The Other World.' It may change._

 _So, that's it._

 _Thank you._


End file.
